


Shapes (that come together)

by Lozza



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-11
Updated: 2014-01-19
Packaged: 2017-12-04 23:58:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 57,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/716537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lozza/pseuds/Lozza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny has a secret</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Saved by the ... bear?

**Author's Note:**

> I've been working on this one for a while, and haven't finished it yet. It's a McDanno, but I'm getting no McDanno from season 3 which is why I've been concentrating on other things. 
> 
> I've decided to put some of this up, mainly to make myself finish it off - I think it's about 3/4 done at the moment, this is just a fragment. 
> 
> Let me know what you think! (Its been done before by better authors though!) Your opinions will be a kick in the butt for me to finish it! 
> 
> Loz

Steve had no real idea where he was, or how he had gotten there. He was in a cold room somewhere, on the floor, with a goon standing over him, Beretta 9mil aimed straight at his head. The guy was laughing, finger squeezing the trigger, and Steve knew he had no way of getting out of his way. I’m sorry, Danno, he thought to himself, sighed and stared at the guy as he struggled futilely at his bonds. 

And then stared, open-mouthed as the door behind his would be assassin burst open. He couldn’t believe his eyes as a huge black bear muscled through the doorway, rose to its hind legs and growled. The noise of the angry creature reverberated around the small concrete area, the animal sounded furious, and the gunman turned slowly to face it, laugh gone, mouth open in horror and shock. 

Even before the guy could raise his gun to the creature, the bear flicked out a paw almost casually and simply ripped out the guy’s throat. Blood fountained out of the guy’s mouth, throat and sprayed across the wall next to him. Steve curled in on himself and waited for his turn, but when nothing happened he opened his eyes and looked up again. The bear was still there, grumbling to itself, and it slumped back onto its four paws, studying him from intent blue eyes. Steve frowned, a bear with blue eyes? But before he could even think about doing anything else the bear turned around with surprising grace and quickly left the room. 

Steve gaped at the space it left, wondering if he imagined it. But the gunman was on the floor, dead, throat ripped out; blood draining into a pool around him, so the SEAL knew something had happened. 

“Steve!” he heard a voice he was scared he would never hear again, and almost sobbed in relief. 

“Danny!” he yelled as much as he could, and tried to sit up as his partner sprinted into the room, gun in one hand, and simply leapt over the body to get to him. He gave the blood, wounds and mess no glance, just knelt beside his friend and helped him up to sit. “Steve,” he said again, and hugged him quickly. “I thought I’d lost you,” he said in his ear. 

The man in question buried his face in his partner’s neck and breathed deeply, taking in lungfuls of his unique scent. “So did I,” he replied, his voice muffled but discernable. “Get me outta here,” he asked, rattling his wrists to make him hear the cuffs. “The dead guy has the keys.”

“I was gonna ask you about that,” Danny commented blithely, it seemed. “What did you do? Tear out his throat with your laser glare?”

Steve looked up as Danny moved away from him to search the dead guy for the keys to the cuffs. He found them soon enough, in a back pocket, but couldn’t help but stare at the guy’s wounds. He had virtually decapitated the guy, most of his throat was gone, and it looked like claws. Big, sharp claws that he knew all about. “What the hell…?” he asked, and quickly returned to his partner to unlock his wrists from behind his back. “Are you all right, Babe?” he asked him, and gently cupped his chin in his hand so he could study his SEAL’s eyes. 

Danny had spotted the head wound when he had entered the room the first time, now he could examine it a bit more closely it didn’t look too bad. “Clunked you over the head, huh?”

Steve nodded. “He was going to shoot me,” he told him quietly, glancing over at the dead guy. “But the bear stopped him.”

“Bear?” Danny asked him, surprise all over his face. “Seriously? A bear, as in all fur, claws and rawrr?” He used his free hand to curl his fingers into fake claws and growled the word ‘rawrr’ which all had the same affect. 

Steve huffed a laugh and nodded. “A furry bear went ‘rawrr’ and clawed the guy,” he told him. “I know you think I’m insane, but that’s what I saw. Now please, Danny,” he added quickly. “Can we get out of here?” 

Danny nodded and helped his partner up onto shaky feet. “I do think you’re insane,” he agreed with him as he slipped his arm around his partner’s waist. “But even you might have trouble hallucinating a bear without LSD. Come on,” he added as he pulled Steve’s arm over his shoulders. “Let’s go find the others.” 

 

TBC...


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hospital, bribery, fluffy feline (sort of...)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one has an OC in it, soz. Thought Danny could do with an advocate at the time. Don't worry, she's not in it much.

Danny waited as his partner was checked out at the medical centre a while later. Steve, as usual, had argued the toss that he hadn’t needed medical assistance even though he’d been smacked over the head, roughed up a bit and kidnapped. “And saw a bear,” Danny had commented lightly as he lead him over to the waiting ambulance. 

“It was there, Danny,” Steve assured him. “I’m more concerned that you didn’t see it,” he added as he walked with him. 

Danny simply smiled at him and handed him over to the waiting paramedics. “The usual, please,” he said to the pair of them sardonically. “I’ll follow behind so he can’t leap out.”

Steve glared at him as Danny pushed him up the stairs into the vehicle and grumbled to himself as he was pushed onto a gurney by one of the paramedics. His threat of retribution to his partner was cut off when Danny simply shut the heavy doors behind him. 

Danny walked over to his car parked nearby, after texting Chin and Kono where he was going, and followed the ambulance as one of the EMTs drove it away. He tried very hard not to shake so hard his hands shook the steering wheel. 

Steve had been taken when he had gone storming into a crime scene, sans back up, the previous day, forgetting his usual back up was in court, testifying. HPD, Chin and Kono had arrived only a minute of two later to find the house on fire, the truck outside but no sign of their Commander. 

Danny had gone ballistic, got out of court and insisted on going to the house to search. Chin hadn’t seen him for hours, getting more and more concerned, and Danny himself was a little contrite about that. He had gone though the house, honed in on Steve’s scent and followed the faint trail to the house they had just raided. Luckily he had also found some physical evidence linking the two properties together so didn’t have to make too much up to his clever colleagues. 

And seeing his partner on the ground with a gunman standing over him had panicked him even more. He had lashed out, literally, in the only way he knew how. 

He had hoped to remain incognito, he had managed it for some years, but his confusing feelings for Steve had now, could now, cause him a problem. 

Now though, as he tried not to shake apart in the car, he concentrated on getting to the hospital in one piece. At least the ambulance wasn’t on red lights, Steve hadn’t had a problem on the way that they had needed to floor it. 

He’d managed to control his shaking by the time he parked his car at the hospital and jogged into the ER. The head nurse recognised him and simply handed him a clipboard and told him the cubicle number, waving him through. 

“Is he alright?” he asked as he walked in. The Doctor looked up at him and smiled in greeting. “Danny,” she greeted him. “He’ll be fine.”

“Bob!” he grinned and said happily when he recognised her. “Are you all right? I’ve not seen you for a while.”

“Hey, patient here!” Steve, lying on the gurney Bob was standing next to called out to them. He was pouting, his arms folded across his naked – again – chest, bruises standing out on his skin. 

Danny grinned at him, relieved beyond measure he was upright, sort of, and talking. “Then be patient, Steven,” he said to him as he walked over. 

Steve’s expression lightened at his partner’s presence, especially when Danny laid a gentle hand on one of his tattooed arms. “You know I can’t stop that,” the Commander commented, trying not to be too grim. 

“That’s true,” the Detective retorted fondly. “Now shush, I need to speak to Bob.”

Doctor Roberta Turpin smiled at him again. “How’s Gracie?” she asked as she turned back to Steve and quickly shone her small torch in both eyes, jotting down the results in her notes. “Ready for her sleepover?”

Danny nodded. “She’s fine,” he replied. “Can’t wait for the sleepover. All she talks about. Well,” he added with a glance at his partner. “Apart from SuperSEAL here, of course,” he added fondly. 

“Not so Super at the moment,” Steve grumbled to himself as he watched Bob poke and prod his injuries. 

“Not for too long though,” the doc assured him, and turned back to Danny. “He needs to stay overnight, but he should be fine to leave tomorrow.”

Danny rolled his eyes and didn’t need to count down for the response, because the Commander started protesting before he could vocalise anyway. 

“I don’t need to stay, Doc,” Steve told her firmly. “I’m fine. I’ll sleep it off at home.”

Danny laughed quietly and squeezed the arm he held. “You are so predictable,” he explained when his partner glared up at him. “You’ve got a lot of bruises to class yourself as ‘fine’.”

“I’ve had worse,” Steve snapped at him. “And gotten back up and carried on.”

“This isn’t the Buttendofnowhere-istan, Steve,” Danny sighed. “Please, just do me and you a favour by staying here tonight. I’ll know where you’ll be, I can spend the rest of the night sorting out this mess and getting the paperwork done,” he pleaded with him. “Or you can go home and I’ll make sure you do all the paperwork,” he added deviously. “For a month.”

Really Chin, Kono and the HPD officers would be quite able to deal with the clean up, they were all still on the scene anyway. Danny would, no doubt, have to do the paperwork any way, as he would normally do. But he needed some time on his own to get the blood from under his nails, the residual cramps from his muscles, and a run to stretch out and calm down. Explaining that to his partner would probably make him want to come with him, and Danny was not ready to explain to him yet that going for a run meant on four legs, dressed in spotted or striped fur with a long tail too. 

But he could see his partner was going to argue, Steve wouldn’t be Steve otherwise. “Steve,” he said firmly before he could. “You owe me for not waiting for back up. Seriously. I’ve got things to go, clean up part of it. I can’t deal with that being worried about you, where you are and what trouble you’re getting into.” He squeezed his arm again. “Don’t tell me you won’t get into any trouble,” he added quickly when he could see the protest forming on Steve’s lips. “I spent one day in court, leaving you in the office with the other members of the team, and you end up being beaten to crap, kidnapped, almost killed and in hospital.” His eyes darkened when he remembered the scene when he had arrived, if he had been a few moments later..? He shook his head and took a few deep breaths to calm himself; shifting back into a bear would give the game away. 

Steve must have seen something in his face, Danny knew he wore his heart on his sleeve and his feelings for his partner were strong at the best of times. “All right,” he agreed, but was not happy about it. “But I get out of paperwork for a month, and you pick me up at 8am, no later.”

Danny sighed theatrically and looked over at Bob who was grinning at them both. “He must think we don’t know him very well,” he said to her. “That we don’t realise he’s caved so quickly because he doesn’t want to do paperwork. Not that he’s feeling crap.”

Bob nodded sagely. “I know,” she agreed with him. “We’ll give him some painkillers so he can sleep,” she soothed. “He’ll be fine.”

“Er, still here,” Steve complained petulantly, looking at them both. 

“Yeah, about you, not too you,” his partner replied. “Now relax, let Bob treat you, and I’ll stay with you until you sleep. Okay?”

That reassurance seemed to be what his fearless leader needed, he relaxed into the bed and let his arms drop from his chest. He wasn’t going to tell Danny how scared he had been when the guy had been standing over him. He had faced death before, but not so much since he had met his contradictory partner, and his main fear then had been that he would never have another chance to listen to one of his rants. And then a bear had turned up? He had been drugged before and hallucinated, but he knew that had not happened this time. But a bear? Why would he imagine up a bear? He looked up at his partner and tried to school his face, but Danny could read him easily. “As soon as I get the report from Max I’ll bring it over,” Danny assured him, knowing some of what was going on in his brain. “Tomorrow morning, okay?”

Steve nodded, relieved beyond measure that his partner seemed to believe him. He let Bob treat his wounds, all the while answering Danny’s questions, and didn’t really notice how well his partner took his statement until the man in question finished and told him so. And he was also surprised at how quickly he was settled into a comfortable room, Danny beside him, as always. “Are you sure I can’t go home?” he asked plaintively as Bob injected some of the strong stuff into his IV. 

“When you wake up,” his partner assured him, fondly amused. Obviously the drugs were taking affect because Steve seemed to be okay with that and he closed his eyes and settled back. Danny watched him as he quickly fell asleep, and looked up at Bob when he was sure he was out of it. “Is he going to be okay?” he asked her quietly. 

She nodded. “He’ll be fine,” she assured him. Bob knew more about Danny than anyone on the islands did, his old partner in New Jersey had told him about her when he had decided to come here, and they had sought each other out. 

Danny nodded and looked back at his partner. “I got there and some guy was just about to shoot him in the head,” he explained. 

“Ah,” Bob replied knowingly. “Bear?”

He nodded, gently ruffled Steve’s hair and stood to walk away from him, just in case. Bob joined him in the corner of the room, knowing how he was feeling. “I couldn’t help it,” he murmured quietly, not looking at her. “I didn’t even think. The guy was gonna shoot him, so next thing I know I was ripping his throat out, in front of my partner.”

“Did he see you change?” Bobbi asked him quickly, glancing over at the sleeping Commander. She could do something if he had but didn’t want to if she didn’t have to – loading someone with a concussion full of strong drugs was something she wanted to avoid. 

Danny though, shook his head. “I was already half way there when I saw him,” he explained. “He was staring at the guy, who had his back to me. And the rest of the team weren’t there, I checked. But,” he added with a grimace. “He’s not gonna let it go, I’m to have to explain eventually.”

Bob laid a hand on his arm. “It’s not the end, Danny,” she tried to assure him. “You never know, he’s crazy enough about you to take it in his stride.”

“Right,” the detective huffed. “Crazy.”

Whether he was ignoring the rest of what she had said, just didn’t want to think about it, or believe it, Bob didn’t know. She shook her head fondly; there was definitely something she did know. “I said he’s crazy about you,” she reminded him. “Which he is. So don’t panic just yet, don’t start planning exit strategies. Okay?”

Danny sighed and finally looked up at her. “Okay,” he agreed, but was not happy about it. “It’s not as if I can leave here anyway,” he added. “Grace’s here, and he’s my …” He paused as he thought about it. “Not mate, but…… he locks me here, in this shape,” he tried to explain, using his hand to implicate his form. 

She smiled and nodded. “Tomato, tomahto,” she commented simply and then laughed quietly for a moment at his dark expression. “I’ll look after him, Danny,” she told him and patted his shoulder. “Go for a run, stretch out, then get some sleep,” she instructed. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Thanks, Bob,” he replied gratefully. “Tomorrow.” He was quite reluctant to leave but he trusted Bobbi with Steve, Gracie and his little secret, so he walked away after a long look at his sleeping partner. 

He called Kono as he was walking back to the car, told her Steve would be fine and he’d see them at the Palace in a few, and had to take some time to sit in the Camaro for a few minutes to calm down. 

By the time he drove to HQ about half an hour later (scenic route) he was calm enough to face his workmates. 

 

********************************************************************************

Danny did as much work as possible before his muscles ceased up completely, which normally happened if he didn’t stretch. He wasn’t a prolific shapeshifter, he didn’t shift very often, and he seemed to have shapes that his lizard brain liked to turn him into. Like a bear, when someone he cared a lot about was in danger, or a big cat when he was stressed or needed to run. He could swim like a fish, hell, he was a fish when he wanted to be, and he could be a beetle too. The only thing he couldn’t do very well was fly, he never got very far, falling out of the sky like a stone, so many times he still had the scars. 

He knew someone people with his particular talent, a couple too who spent all of their time shifting from one form to another, barely retaining their human form. But it was exhausting, he didn’t have that much strength, he had tried for a few weeks when he was in college to make himself a foot taller, but after three weeks of constant concentration all he did was rip the muscles and tendons in his ankles, gave himself a stiff neck and migraine it took weeks to get over, and more of a complex about his height. 

But the run he was planning had always been his favourite thing to do, feline or canine, it didn’t really matter. He tried not to think about it too much as he was trying to get the 2 cousins to go home, he could, and had, spontaneously changed before, hence the bear earlier, and his partner in Jersey finding out about him.

Finally, about time too, Chin tugged Kono from their desks and out of the door. “Tomorrow, Brah,” he said to Danny as he stuck his head into his office. “Go home, get some sleep.”

Danny nodded and saved his work on his computer. “You too, Chin,” he answered with a smile. “Make sure Kono does too.”

Chin nodded and left him to it, giving him one of his patent no nonsense looks which basically told Danny to get his ass out of the office and leave. 

The detective nodded, waited for them both to leave, and slipped out of the office to his car, pulling his tie off as he went. Getting in the driver’s seat was a bit odd, even though it was his car, and he hated that the only reason why that was, was because Steve was asleep in hospital. 

He quickly drove away to his favourite spot, deep in the forest in the Ewa Forest Reserve and parked the car in an unobtrusive spot in a small out of the way car park. He had to wait while the other people there left before he stripped quickly, hiding gun, badge, wallet in the bucket under the passenger seat (Steve must not know about that one, there were no grenades or other explosives stashed in there), folding his clothes and leaving them in a bag in the footwell. He slipped the car keys onto a chain that he put over his head, looked around him again to make sure he was alone, and slipped out of his car, into the trees beside him. He thumbed the remote to lock the car, then turned away and started to run. 

Between one step to the next he had changed out of his usual form to a jaguar, all long limbed and graceful. To anyone watching they would have seen Danny Williams one moment and a big spotted cat the next, sharing the same space, but Danny felt every change. He felt his muscles stretching out, moving into the right places, his bones cracking, slipping around under his seemingly fluid skin, momentarily itching as fur grew quickly, and whiskers. All of a sudden his eye sight got a lot sharper, his sense of smell much more sensitive, his hearing a lot better, he noticed all the life going on around him from the birds in the trees to the little rodents running away from his sudden appearance. 

What was Danny Williams, Detective Sergeant, 2IC of 5-0, worried friend sort of faded into a distant hum as he became the cat he had turned into. With a happy growl he stretched out his claws to feel the earth beneath them, sniffed the air, and loped off. 

TBC...


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Internet forums are scary places

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should also mention it's a case fic...

Steve was waiting for him, awake, itching to leave when Danny turned up at the hospital the next morning. He had stripped out of that crappy hospital gown when he had woken, rummaged around for some clothes but only found his phone instead. His partner was not overly surprised to receive a text from him, demanding clothes and a lift. 

Danny turned up some ten minutes later and made show of looking at his watch. “Did I not say eight am, Steven?” he asked him as he walked into the room. “It’s not even six thirty yet.”

Steve, sitting on the edge of the bed, facing the door, with nothing but a sheet covering his groin, grinned at him. “Don’t be mad, Danno,” he replied, amused. “I did give you half an hour before I sent that text.”

Danny rolled his eyes heavenward as he walked over, if only to give himself a moment to control his reactions to the state his friend was in. Instead of concentrating on his very well formed chest and arms, the ink snaking across his skin, highlighting his nipples, muscles so nicely, Danny made himself look at the bruises and small cuts that dotted his torso. With a sigh he dumped his burdens on a chair next to the bed and surprised his partner by sliding an arm around his shoulders and hugging him tightly. “Morning, Babe,” he greeted him properly as Steve hugged him back. “Are you all right? Really?”

Steve nodded and squeezed him tightly before he let him go. “I’m okay, Danno,” he assured him and looked him up and down. “You okay?”

Danny nodded and gently ruffled his hair as he stepped away. “I’ve brought you some stuff to wear,” he told him as he rifled thought the duffle he’d packed. He handed his partner his toiletries bag and a pair of shorts. “Do you need help to get to the bathroom?” he asked him. 

Steve looked up at him with a smile. “The Doc says I shouldn’t lift anything heavy, so you might have to help me pee,” he told him impishly. 

Danno sighed and looked down at his partner’s covered groin pointedly. “Right,” he said dryly. “Keep dreaming.”

 

****************************************************************************

By the time Steve had freshened up, taken a quick shower in the small bathroom and walked back into the main room Danny was dozing on the bed he had recently vacated. He shook his head fondly and let him sleep while he got dressed and got ready for the day. Despite hating hospitals Steve had to admit that he had slept well, no nightmares, and he felt better than he had for a while. Despite being beaten up yesterday he felt able to swim a few miles and get straight back to work. But he doubted Danny would let him do that, he thought to himself as he watched him doze. 

Danny had looked scared when he found him, so much so he hadn’t questioned him about the bear. He’d just grabbed him and gotten him out of there, into the arms of paramedics and taken charge of the situation. Steve tried to watch him at work from his vantage point but Danny had shut the doors before shouting orders at arriving HPD as he had gone back to his car. Now though Danny looked tired, even as his slept, forehead creased in lines, and he wasn’t deeply asleep. Even as he watched Danny started to move, mouthing words, and Steve walked over to him, frowning too. He grabbed his shoulder when Danny’s vocalisations made it obvious he was in the throws of a nightmare. “Danny,” he said firmly to him and shook him. “Danny!”

The Detective came awake all at once, sat up and stared at him. He was shaking under Steve’s hands and the SEAL did the only thing he could think of. He stepped close and hugged him tightly again. “It’s all right, Danno,” he murmured in his ear. “It was just a dream.” 

Danny hugged him back, face against his chest so he could use the steady beat of his partner’s heart to reassure him. The nightmare had been the same one that had ruined his night – getting there only in time to see his partner dead on the ground. But here he was, alive, strong arms around him, and Danny reverted to his usual state – annoyed. He pushed away, but only enough so he could poke him in the now tee shirt covered (unfortunately) shoulder. “Don’t you ever do that to me again, you maniac.” he snapped at him. “Next time I’m in court you’re coming with me! Just so I can keep an eye on you. Got it?”

Steve smiled and nodded, his arms still loosely around him. “Yes, Danny,” he replied, fondly amused. 

“I mean it, McGarrett,” Danny retorted, not in the mood for meaningless placating. “I’m not with you for one day, and you forget everything I’ve told you about back up!” He gestured around him expansively with one arm, the other holding onto his partner for dear life. “And you end up here. Did you even think to wait?”

Steve had to shake his head; he knew Danny would know if he attempted to lie. “I forgot you weren’t with me,” he admitted. “I…”

“You forgot?!” Danny demanded, livid. He shoved him away from him with a hand on his chest and jumped down from the bed so he could stalk away. 

Steve stood back and watched as he stared out of the windows, arms folded across his chest, but whatever he was trying to do obviously didn’t work. “You forgot?!” he shouted again as he turned to face the recalcitrant SEAL. “You could have been killed! That asshole was going to kill you! How could you forget?!”

“Danny…” Steve tried to placate him, but he knew he was not going to succeed. “Next time I will come with you to court,” he assured him instead. “I promise.”

Danny could read him very well so he knew his words and face meant – I’m sorry, I’ll try not to do it again, please don’t be mad, please don’t leave me. He huffed a sigh and found himself smiling a little at him. “Great.” he said dryly as he relaxed and walked back over to him. “Puppy dog face number twelve,” he commented fondly. “What can I do against that?”

Steve waited for him to walk back to the bed and sit back down on it before he joined him and sat next to him. “Not much,” he commented, relieved that his partner laughed quietly. 

“Very true,” the detective replied. “Very true.”

 

**********************************************************************************

 

Bob turned up a little before eight am and stopped at the door to watch them. They were both dozing again, spooning with Danny on the inside, and she was loathe to disturb them. 

Steve though noticed her almost immediately and looked at her over his partner’s hair. 

“Morning, Commander,” she greeted him as she walked in. “Feeling better?”

Steve nodded. “Can you sign me out now?” he asked her, moving away from Danny so not to disturb him. 

“Are you going to realise just what you have in that man there?” she asked him bluntly, nodding at the still sleeping Danny. 

Which was not what Steve had expected. His eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed again when he studied her. “You want him,” he stated simply. 

She grinned and nodded. “I’m not immune,” she answered him. “I’m not blind either,” she added as she picked up his chart. “He’s only got eyes for one person who seems to be oblivious,” she commented slyly. 

Steve frowned and his arms tightened around the man in question very possessively. So much so Danny woke at that, and at Bob’s chuckle. 

The detective woke to find his favourite doctor grinning down at him and his partner hugging him tightly. With a sigh he decided it was probably safer if he didn’t know, and patted Steve’s hand clenched over his own heart. “Let me up, Babe,” he said to him, and sat up when he did, reluctantly. “Morning, Bobbi,” he said as Steve used his shoulder to level himself upright next to him. “Is he good to go?”

Bob nodded. “If he promises to be a good boy and doesn’t drive,” she answered him, amused. “I don’t want him pulling any stitches.”

Danny grinned and Steve pouted, but he didn’t argue. Yet. He could be noble and let Danny drive his own car every so often, he did have to keep in practice after all. And, he thought a few minutes later when he was settled in the passenger seat of the Camaro, Danny’s grin lit up his bright blue eyes as he listened to the throaty roar of the big engine as he fired it up. “Mmm,” he hummed as he drove the machine out of the hospital car park into the main flow of traffic. “This is amazing. I actually get to drive my own car!”

Steve couldn’t help but grin back. “Don’t get used to it.”

 

**********************************************************************************

 

Bob had suggested, as Steve pointed out to Danny, only "suggested" the Commander go home, so Danny drove them to HQ – (“Of course. Why would you wanna rest after you’ve been smacked around a bit?” “Because you’d have nothing to rant about”). Neither were very surprised to see both Chin and Kono already there, going over the reports of yesterday’s bust. And neither cousin was too surprised to see their Boss walking in with Danny either. They greeted each other, Kono handed Danny a large mug of coffee, and the four of them got down to business. 

“Chin, Kono, what have we got about the perps?” Steve asked them, but his attention was on Danny and the way he savoured the coffee, eyes closed, letting the hot liquid flood over his tongue. It shouldn’t be so hot, but Steve couldn’t help but think what other fluids flooding over Danny’s tongue and would he give them the same expression. 

Steve only managed to drag his attention back to the other two when Chin discretely cleaned his throat. “We can do this when you’ve not just come out of hospital,” he said to him, but the gleeful expression on Kono’s face told the SEAL neither were fooled. 

“No,” he answered them and looked back at the table in front of them. “Start again,”

Turned out the trio of shooters that were killed yesterday at the house and the other two that Steve had taken out earlier belonged to a group of minor league gangbangers from the mainland. Kono had managed to download texts from phones indicating they had been employed as drug runners in the islands and Chin was tracing their employer through the phones. 

By the time the cousins had finished explaining what they had found Danny had gotten his second cup of coffee and a chair for his partner to plant his ass on. He was going to argue but Danny glared at him, shoved the chair behind his knees and pushed him down onto it with a snapped: “Don’t argue.” Steve, sensibly, did as he was told. And if he were questioned he would not admit that Take Charge Danny turned him on very quickly. 

Not long after that Max the ME called Chin with preliminary autopsy reports. Chin had gone through the joys of video conferencing with him a few weeks ago, so put his call up on the screens for them all to join in. 

The first four reports were delivered with his usual sparse style, 3 gunshot wounds, (Danny, Kono and Steve’s) and one knife wound, also Steve’s. “And the most unusual,” Max said with a flourish. “The fifth male died by unusual means. Exsanguination caused by Ursus Actos, more specifically Ursus Actos Horribilis.”

Three frowned, Steve even deeper when Danny filled them in. “Grizzly bear,” he said to them all, translating Max’s words. “Not found in Hawai’i. Right Max?” he asked to clarify, and to get Steve’s eyes off him. 

“You are correct, Detective Williams,” Max agreed. “This species is found in the northern states of the mainland. It’s range once stretched from Alaska to Mexico, but none have been found in the wild in Hawai’i. Adults grow up to two point five metres tall and up to four hundred and ten kilos in weight. They are omnivores and only tend to attack humans if their cubs are threatened.”

Steve closed his eyes and remembered what he had seen. “And I don’t suppose they have blue eyes either,” he commented darkly. 

“Highly unlikely, Commander,” Max agreed. “However, the fact remains. Male five was killed by a Grizzly Bear. Do you happen to have one as a pet?” he asked with a small smile. 

Danny, tense from the information, managed to laugh. “Don’t give him ideas, Max,” he commented, amused. “I’ve only just managed to stop him keeping a bazooka under his desk.”

“I put it in the Camaro,” Steve retorted quickly, momentarily distracted from his conundrum. 

Danny grinned at him. “And I donated it to Kono’s collection,” he rejoined. “It’s getting quite extensive now.”

Kono nodded sagely, well used to the banter. “It fits quite nicely behind the seats of my Kruze,” she answered him. 

Chin rolled his eyes and concentrated on Max. “While the children are discussing their toys, have you got anything else?” he asked. “Any other deaths by bear recently?”

Max shook his head. “No,” he answered him. “And I have not found any sightings either,” he added. “Although…” he went on with a curious expression on his face. “I have come across some sightings of various non-native animals,” he continued, which got Danny’s attention straight away. 

He did his utmost, every time, to make sure he was unseen, but it was only a small island after all. “Such as?” he asked, hoping he only sounded curious and not freaking out to himself.

“A smattering of big cats, usually described as leopards or jaguars,” Max answered him as he quickly typed into his computer. “A Golden Eagle that could not fly, a large Komodo Dragon, someone even posted they saw a Velociraptor.” he added with one of his tight smiles. 

Danny laughed with the rest of the team but he knew he shouldn’t have caved to Gracie and tried that one. 

“Where are you getting all this from?” Kono asked the ME, curious of his sources. 

“Internet forum,” Max answered, typing some more. Kono’s phone beeped a moment later. “I have emailed you the web address.”

Steve thanked him and closed the conversation, and video link with him, while his partner admitted he was quietly freaking out and wondering how he could get that web address. He didn’t have to worry too much about that, Kono showed her cuz who quickly typed it into the table. But it was, it seemed, to be a busy forum with lots of members, who seemed to be on his every move. “Last chat was generated yesterday,” Chin stated as he read the last thread. “About a big cat in Ewa Reserve.”

Steve smiled ruefully, amused despite the situation. “Anything about a bear?” he asked them.

Chin did a quick check on the discussion threats over the last few days and shook his head. “No bear,” he replied with one of his patented non-looks, that showed them he was amused but he was not actually going to show it. 

“All right,” the Commander agreed and his tone put a stop to that search. “Lets get back to business. We need to find out whom these guys were working for. After that we can maybe go looking for a bear.”

Danny was very pleased to be getting away from the animal sightings and back to proper work. An Internet forum? Seriously? The four of them split up for their own tasks, but it wasn’t long before Steve ended up stretched out on the sofa in his office, head cushioned on one arm, the other slung over his eyes, while he listened to his partner, who had decided Steve’s office was a better place to work, speaking on his desk phone to someone. 

He had to admit Danny was very persuasive when he wanted to be. He was calm, his voice soothing to the SEAL’s ears, his tone friendly, laughing when needed, making listening noises, all the while jotting everything down and directing the conversation. If anyone was listening they would think he was speaking to a friend rather than a confidential informant. It wasn’t too long before he was thanking whoever it was and hanging up, and Steve knew he was watching him, waiting for something. 

“What did you get, Danny?” Steve asked him after a few moments of silence; surprised he had to wait so long for his partner to speak.

“Not much,” Danny answered him. “The usual stuff: might be’s, could be’s, word on the street crap.” Which was right, the kid had given him rumours that the boys of some guy called Bernie (of all things) had tried to take out the head of 5-0 and were cooling off in the morgue for their trouble. At least that part was true. 

Danny would have to do a bit of digging to find out who this ‘Bernie’ was, but first he thought, as he studied his supine partner, he had more important things to do. “Come on,” he said and stood. “You’ll be much more comfortable dozing in your hammock.” He walked over to him and stood over him as Steve uncovered his eyes and blinked up at him. “Let me take you home.”

Steve eyed the hand Danny held out to him as if it were a live snake. He didn’t want to go home and sleep the afternoon away, he wanted to get back to work and find out who these guys were working for. But Danny was looking stubborn, and when Danny was stubborn and Steve this tired, the Commander knew he was going to lose. With a groan he took his partner’s hand and let him pull him up to sit and then to his feet. “You win, this time,” he conceded, not letting go of his hand. 

Danny grinned and squeezed his fingers gently. “I might write that down and get you to sign it,” he replied, amused. 

Steve grinned and followed him out of the office. “You’ve got my signing hand,” he told him and squeezed gently too. “So no can do.”

Danny huffed good-naturedly but didn’t let him go. Instead he stepped a little close and let the SEAL sling his other arm over his shoulders for support as they walked over to the cousins, working at the computer desk. “I’m taking SuperSEAL home,” he told them both when they looked up at their approach. “Call me if you get anything?”

“Sure, Boss,” Kono agreed with a grin, and Chin nodded. They both watched them leave before turning back to their work. 

“How long do you think Danny’ll be?” Chin asked his cousin quietly after making sure they had left. 

Kono smiled. “Couple of hours at least.”

 

**********************************************************************************

 

Danny manhandled his partner into the passenger seat of the Camaro without too much arguing, and quickly got in himself to take him home. The silence in the car was comfortable, for a few minutes. 

“I really did see a bear, Danny,” Steve said to him after a few minutes of staring out of the windows. “I’m not that nuts.”

Danny smiled and patted his thigh. “I’m not disputing that,” he assured him. “If it’s on Oahu, we’ll find it, don’t worry.” He grinned at him. “But you are a bit nuts though,” he added impishly. 

“Huh,” Steve replied but smiled at him. 

 

**********************************************************************************

Danny huffed his way back up the stairs to 5-0 a couple of hours later and stomped into the offices. He’d helped Steve up the stairs to his bedroom, helped him out of his clothes and into bed, teeth gritted all the time, concentrating on not ravaging the sleepy SEAL. 

He waited for him to sleep before he left the house, locking up behind him and setting the alarm and then sat in his car, checked the clock on the dash and then sighed to himself. He needed to speak to his mother about his lapse in judgement but it was far too early in New Jersey for that call – she had always tried to reinforce secrecy with his talents. He sighed again and fired the Camaro’s throaty engine, driving out of the sanctuary Steve’s house had become. First things first, he had some bad guys to catch. 

Chin was pleased to see him, Kono not so much, and as she handed a bill or two over Danny figured out why. “Why are you betting on when I’d be back?” he asked them curiously. When neither of them replied, just looked at him a bit sheepishly, he sighed loudly. “Kono, there are support groups for gambling addicts like you, you know.” He went and filled a coffee cup to the brim before he returned to his partners at the IT table. “So, what have you two been up to while I’ve been tucking in our fearless leader? Or don’t I want to know?”

Chin smiled. “The zoo here only has Sun Bears,” he told him, vastly amused at the situation. “No Grizzlies. They can’t live here, like Max said.”

“And I think I’ve found a link to the people our dead guys are working for,” Kono added, giving her cousin a dark look. 

Danny grinned at her, and at Chin, rubbing his arm as if singed. “What have you got, Rookie?” he asked her, and concentrated on getting down to business. 

 

TBC...


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snooping, sleeping, and perfect kissing...

By the time Danny made it back to check up on his partner the sun was rising on the next day and he was ready to curl up anywhere, even on the doorstep, to get some shut eye. He, Chin and Kono had worked on her lead, visited snitches, checked numerous crimes and intel reports, and eventually pinned the main guy down to an address. He and Chin had sat outside the house for a while, leaving Kono at the office, but when nothing had happened Danny had taken an executive decision to send the pair of them home. And it also meant he could do a little snooping on his own. He had spotted a cat flap in the main front door on surveillance photos so he had waited for Kono to pick up her cousin from his car, and assured them both he’d go home too. He waited a few minutes for them to leave before he quickly morphed into his favourite tabby housecat and slipped easily through the barred gates at the head of the drive, trotting up to the cat door. Luckily for him it was an older model, not controlled by a magnet or locked, and he slipped into the house as quietly as he could. He could smell other house cats around, but none came to investigate this new intruder to their territory. 

The house was quite large, in a nice part of town, but not too opulent that it screamed ‘drug dealer’. From their investigations Danny knew the guy, a man calling himself Simeon Fitzwalter, was careful, only a couple of speeding tickets to his name, but their leads here had been solid. He may not have ordered those people to take Steve, but he had paid them a far amount of money for something, and the detective was determined to find out when and why. He knew whatever he found now would be inadmissible in court, which was why he had chosen his feline shape – no opposable thumbs so he wasn’t tempted to pick anything up and leave with it. 

He took his time going through the house, the ground floor had the usual kitchen, reception rooms and an office, but that was locked and he couldn’t get in. Upstairs were some bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms. One room he checked into was obviously a young boy’s room, the next one a teenager, and the next the man himself. Fitzwalter was awake, on his phone, whispering into it, his voice furious, and with some surprise, Danny recognised fear too. He slipped in, unnoticed, and listened in.

“What were you thinking?!” the guy hissed angrily into the phone pressed to his ear. “When I said I’d help you I didn’t think I’d be aiding and abetting drug dealers and kidnappers! You said you needed money for a boat business. Now I find you mean bringing in drugs by boat, and I gave you the down payment!” He paused, listening to a voice on the other end, trying to placate, but Danny couldn’t hear the speaker. 

“Don’t ‘Simeon’ me!” he hissed after a few moments. “I didn’t work my ass off at college and business to lose it all because of my stupid brother!”

The voice on the end of the phone said something else and Fitzwalter shook his head. “Did you just threaten my kids?” he snapped, furious. “No way in hell am I gonna let you get away with that! You’re a shit and a whack job. And I know exactly who to call to deal with you,” he finished and snapped his phone shut. 

He sighed, pulled up a laptop from his nightstand, and fired up the wifi. “Five-oh,” he murmured and typed into the search engine. “Where’s their bloody phone number?” 

Danny started and turned on his heels, slipping out of the room and back downstairs. With Steve out of commission any calls from HPD went to his mobile by default, which was in his car. He legged it out of the house, banging through the cat flap and startling the rightful user on the outside but ignored the big ginger tomcat and sprinted out of the grounds, leaping up and over walls with gleeful abandon. 

He had changed, and was pulling his shirt on in the car when the call came through on his mobile. “Williams,” he answered it on the second ring. 

He tried to sound surprised when the HPD dispatcher informed him of a desperate Simeon Fitzwalter needing to see someone from 5-0 now, sounded apologetic when he groaned in the right places, and then relieved when he said he’d be there at the address she gave him in a few minutes. 

He waited for a few minutes, fired up the Camaro, drove round the corner and then back to the house. He was a little surprised to find the gates open for him, but drove in anyway. He hadn’t seen any goons in the house during his recon, and wasn’t hugely concerned. 

Fitzwalter opened the front door for him before he could knock, ushered him in and studied his badge and ID quite thoroughly before he said anything. “Thank you for coming, Detective,” he said gratefully, and took him in to the office that had been locked earlier. “I need some help with my brother.”

Danny frowned at him, hoping he looked confused. “What can 5-0 do about your brother?” he asked. 

“He’s dealing drugs,” Simeon told him bluntly. “Bringing it in by boat. He wants me to fund it for him, and I was stupid enough to believe him,” he explained quickly. “Now he’s threatening my kids.”

Danny sat down in the chair next to Simeon’s desk and nodded. “Tell me everything,” he instructed. “And please tell me you have evidence to back this up?”

Simeon nodded, indicating to the same laptop Danny Cat had seen earlier. “I’ll download everything for you, if you protect my children.”

Danny agreed, settled down, and got to work. 

 

****************************************************************************************************

 

By the time he finally got back to Steve’s house he had set up protection for Simeon and his kids (he was a widower) with some gratefully received help from Duke, an APB on his brother David, warrant set up for searches on the boats Simeon gave him details for and all the information he had given him downloaded onto Chin’s servers. He had only left HQ when the cousins had turned up at his call when he could do no more on his own, and they had kicked him out with reassurances they would keep him in the loop. He used his key in Steve’s door, unsurprised that the alarm was off and he was met at the door by the armed, but relaxed Navy SEAL. 

Danny looked him up and down and smiled tiredly. “You look better,” he told him. Steve did, he was awake, the dark circles had dissipated, he wasn’t holding himself as if he was in pain, and he was in his swim gear. His bruises hadn’t faded much, but there weren’t any more at least so he had stayed at home after Danny had left.   
“I feel better,” Steve told him as he let him into the house. “I don’t think I’ve slept so long in my own bed.”

Danny kicked off his shoes and was going to sit down, but decided caffeine was the way to go. “Did you sleep all afternoon and night?” he asked him slightly incredulous at him. 

Steve nodded as he followed him into the kitchen. “I woke to eat and pee last night,” he explained as he studied him. “You look rough, Danno,” he noted bluntly. “Did you sleep at all?”

Danny shook his head, aiming for the coffee machine, which was why he didn’t notice the frown on his partner’s face. “Been working all night,” he answered him, and frowned himself when Steve snaked a hand around his own and pulled him away from the coffee. “I need caffeine, Steve!” he protested as he was pulled away from his quarry. “Coffee!”

Steve chuckled and slipped his other arm around his partner’s waist to keep him away. “What you need is sleep, Danno,” he told him fondly. “You’ve been up for thirty six hours at least. Come on.”

Danny was still trying to get at the coffee, but Steve just laughed and physically lifted him off his feet, letting go of his arm to wrap both around his waist. He carried him, kicking and cursing to the stairs, put him down, and shoved him up the stairs. “Up, up,” he instructed, and pushed him, constant pressure on the centre of Danny’s back. 

Danno grumbled but complied, not that he had much choice, and Steve chuckled when he heard the usual comments: “control freak, robot, SuperSEAL” among them.   
“Yeah, yeah,” the Commander retorted fondly as he pushed him into the spare bedroom. “Do you need to use the bathroom or can I just tuck you in now?” he asked him, amused. When Danny simply said “teeth” he pushed him into the family bathroom nearby. 

Danny balked at help in there; he turned and shut the door in Steve’s face, growling at his laughter. 

Steve, knowing he would hate it, stayed outside the door and waited for him, and just as he thought his partner growled at him again when he opened the door to find him still there and still grinning at him. “Are you on speed this morning, or something?” he grumbled and pushed his way past him unto the spare bedroom – the room Steve now classed as Danno’s anyway. 

“No, Danno,” he assured him as he followed him in. “I’m just happy to see your lovely, smiling face on this gorgeous Hawaiian morning.”

Danny flipped him a finger but he was smiling as he sat on the bed. “Glad to hear it,” he added, truthfully. He had been concerned about leaving his partner for so long, but seeing him this chirpy calmed him. “What are you gonna do?” he asked him as he started to strip. “Chin and Kono have got strict instructions to bring you back here if you turn up to work without me,” he said quickly, starting on the buttons of his shirt. 

Steve watched him, distracted, as he took off his button down and folded it up, then his undershirt, exposing his ripped chest. Any confusion the SEAL may have harboured over his partner faded when he stripped in front of him, and his cock, head and heart all conjoined. He needed him, wanted him, and it was getting much more difficult to fight that. So he was not surprised when his feet took him back to his partner’s side and sat down next to him. “I er, thought I‘d go for a swim,” he told him. 

Danny looked him up and down. “Salt water in cuts, you sure Babe?” he asked him as he unbuttoned his fly. 

Steve didn’t really know what to say to that. Danny was clearly concerned about him, which was surprise, he hadn’t thought anyone, and especially someone like Danny would care about him. “What did I do?” he asked him quietly as he studied his best friend. 

Danny frowned at him and reached out a hand to touch him, anywhere. “Steve?” he asked, concerned.

Danny’s hand landed on his arm and the Commander stared at it for a moment, before looking back up at his partner. 

Who was starting to freak the fuck out. “Steve?” he asked again, squeezing his arm where he held it. “Speak. Are you all right? Babe, normally I would have something that’s your fault, but not at the moment. What do you mean?”

“I just… I mean… fuck…” Steve replied eloquently. “Danny,” he said, trying again. “You care about me?”

Danny nodded, his frown deepening. “I’d hoped all my yelling at you about back up and looking before you leap into fire would have told you that,” he answered him, and studied the look on his face before he said something else. Steve looked worried, a little scared, as if he was thinking someone was going to shoot Danny there and then because he cared about him. “I care about you, Steve. A lot,” he told him firmly. “You’re my best friend, I don’t want you getting hurt. At all.”

Steve looked away from him for a moment, trying to think about what he had been told, what it meant, and how he felt. He had woken and was so hopeful to see Danny there, upset when he wasn’t, but almost bouncing when he heard his car arrive. Now Danny was here, telling him he cared about him, and Steve found himself… uncertain about what to do next. But, as usual, Danny had his back. 

“What do you want, Babe?” the other man asked him, his hand tight on his partner’s arm. He reached out with his other arm to lightly touch his face, tracing his cheekbone with his thumb. “What do you need?”

Steve stared at him in silence for a moment in which he was listing to himself why he shouldn’t do anything, why he should apologise and back off. But Danny would be hurt and he deserved better than that. And Steve had lost so much he knew if he waited something could happen and he could lose this too. 

With an almost terrified whimper he moved in, took Danny’s beloved face in his hands and pressed his lips to his mouth. He was expecting a sharp shove to get him away, so when Danny let go of his arm and slid that arm around his back and pulled him closer he was surprised. And pleased when Danny got involved and kissed him back. It was a chaste kiss, their angles were wrong, and Danny pulled back after a few moments, or two, or thirty, and smiled at him. “How long have you wanted to do that?” he asked him, still caressing his cheek with his thumb. 

“A while,” Steve answered him after some thought. He hadn’t realised what he had wanted until now, didn’t know what the panic in his chest was when Danny did something dangerous, the tightness there when he wasn’t with him meant. Until now. And now he’d tasted his lips, understood his wants, he didn’t want to stop.   
“Danny?” he asked, putting all his thoughts into that one word, hoping he would understand. 

Danny did, he was fluent in Steve, and he smiled and nodded. “I’ve wanted you since you were pissed at me for strapping that asshole onto the bonnet,” he admitted to him fondly. “But,” he cautioned him gently. “I’m exhausted, Steve. The spirit’s willing but the flesh isn’t, and all that.”

Steve nodded but he didn’t stop smiling. “I was so proud of you then,” he assured him fondly. “I knew you were hiding your badassery behind your procedures. It comes out every so often.”

Danny chuckled and laid a quick peck on the side of his mouth. “You got me, Babe,” he answered him. 

Steve nodded and kissed him again, licking into his mouth when Danny opened up to let him in. His partner gave back as good as he got, exploring Steve’s mouth with his own tongue, tasting him and savouring it. Eventually they pulled away, panting for air, and Steve smiled at him, leaning his forehead against Danny’s for a few moments. “I have got you, haven’t I?” he asked, still cupping his face in his hands. 

Danny nodded and yawned, before he laughed quietly. “Yes, you have,” he agreed fondly. “But let me get some sleep, I’m worth shit right now.”

Steve grinned, shook his head and kissed him again, a gentle caress of lips on the corner of his mouth. “Worth so much more than that,” he assured him, and let him go. “Get some sleep, I promise I won’t go to the office.”

Danny smiled again, which turned into another yawn. He shooed him away with a hand, and quickly stripped off his pants and socks before he crawled under the cool sheets of the bed. He had thought he would stay awake foe a while, buzzed at what had happened and both their revelations, but he was so tired, the bed so comfortable and Steve’s presence in the room so reassuring as he pottered around, folding Danny’s clothes, he was asleep in moments. 

 

*******************************************************************************

 

Steve decided, after about twenty minutes, that his partner would have something to say which would not be complimentary if he stayed in the bedroom and watched him sleep. So he left him after a while, pulling the door too, and wandered down the stairs again. He pottered around for a while, thinking about what had happened, and ended up grinning to himself as he washed up. Danny, his loud, contrary, opinionated partner cared for him, and had kissed him back. And Steve decided, after he had caught himself doing a passable moonwalk across his kitchen, a swim was the best thing for him. Just in case he ended up catching a severe case of giddiness. And wouldn’t Danny just love teasing him about that!

TBC...


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sex! And that's about it for this one....

By the time Danny was awake again, after dreaming about bears and cats and Steve, it was two pm and he could hear people moving around downstairs. He sat up and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands and looked around him before he got out of bed and padded into the bathroom. Steve had laid out fresh towels for him, making the Detective smile. He showered, still smiling at his goofy partner, dried off, and wrapped a towel around his waist to walk back into the spare room that he had virtually moved in to. He didn’t have many possessions in Hawai’i, having sold most of it when he had moved to this lump of pumice floating in the Pacific, and as he looked around the room he chuckled to himself. Most of that was in this room, virtually all of his clothes, most of his books and other stuff he had saved were scattered on bookshelves, his own sheets on the bed, and even a few tie hangers in the wardrobe. He dressed, rubbed his hair dry and left it, and walked down the stairs to find the voices. 

As he had thought the rest of his team were around the kitchen table, files spread out, Chin’s computer working away, Kono showing Steve something on her iPad, a new pot of coffee brewing in the coffee maker he had bought during the mess getting the Commander out of prison. He walked straight over and poured himself a mug, his favourite that someone, probably Steve, had gotten out for him. He smiled, and turned back round to find silent Ninja SuperSEAL standing right next to him.   
Steve grinned at him and quickly grabbed hold of his mug so he didn’t spill it over himself when he jumped. “Afternoon, Danno,” he greeted, highly amused. “Are you okay?”

Danny nodded and pulled his mug back, taking a sip as he took a good look at his partner. “Fine,” he told him with a smile. “You? I suppose you did swim?”

Steve managed to look sheepish and blush a little, which made his partner grin. “It didn’t sting too much,” he answered him, and reached for him. “And I didn’t go into the office,” he assured him as he caught Danny’s free hand in his own. 

“No,” Danny replied with a laugh and used that hand to tug him closer. “You brought the office to your house.”

Steve stepped close to him, looming over him, pressing close to him, grinning down at him. “I didn’t,” he said to him quietly, his voice a little husky. “They did.”

Danny smiled up at him and put his mug down on the counter behind him so he could use that hand to cup the nape of his partner’s neck “Really?” he asked him, pulling him down. 

“Uh huh,” Steve murmured, his lips moving against Danny’s as he said it. 

“Mmmm,” Danny agreed, and closed the distance between them. Steve, Danny noted as he found himself wrapped up in his partner’s strong arm and pulled close against him, was a very good kisser. He tasted good too, hot and sweet as he delved his tongue into Danny’s mouth, exploring and tasting as he had done earlier. 

Danny gave as good as he was getting, twisting his tongue with his partner’s, exploring where he could. 

They only broke off when they heard Kono snicker with laughter behind them and Chin’s loud sigh. “’bout time, Brah,” Kono said, amused. 

“We’ll be on the lanai,” Chin added, and the pair of them quickly vacated the kitchen, leaving them to relative privacy. 

The boys hadn’t moved, foreheads pressed together, fingers of one hand still interlocked, other arms around each other’s waists, bodies pressed together, breathing the same air. “She’s right you know,” Steve murmured after a few moments. “We took our own sweet time to do this.”

“Yeah,” Danny agreed, and took a moment to think about what he wanted. Steve, pressed against him, was aroused, his half-hard cock pressed against Danny’s hip. 

He was aroused himself; he’d been around the block a few times and knew what he wanted, and whom he wanted it with. “Shall we let them have a break for lunch while we…” ‘Fuck’ was such a harsh word for what he wanted to do, ‘make love’ was a bit wimpy, and ‘shag’ was a carpet. 

But he needn’t have worried, Steve knew what he meant, and he nodded and pressed a kiss to his partner’s lips. “Go back upstairs,” he told him as he pulled away. “I’ll follow you in a few.”

Danny nodded and pulled his hand, still captured in Steve’s own, to his mouth so he could quickly suck his thumb. It was a quick gesture, but filled with meaning, and Steve’s cock jerked in response. “You better had,” Danny told him, his voice deeper, showing him what he wanted. He pulled away then and headed back up the stairs, pulling off the t-shirt he had just put on as he went.

Steve watched him go, eyes zeroing in on his tight butt as he went. He breathed deeply and forced himself to head out to the lanai to the other two. “Erm, lunch break?” he said as he popped his head around the outer door, hiding his obvious erection behind the doorframe. “Danno wants to make sure I’m in one piece.”

“Right,” Chin called out drily from the chair he’d set himself in. “I’m sure he does.”

“I’ll check your ocean out too, Boss!” Kono called over to him, her face lit up with a huge grin. “Just don’t make too much noise!”

 

***************************************************************************

 

It was rather a long lunch break; the Commander and the Detective spent the next couple of hours getting to know each other a bit better. Steve figured out that Danny could shut up and be quiet when he wanted, needed to, and Danny found out Steve knew what to do with his tongue. So much so Danny ended up burying his face in a pillow to stop himself yelling a few choice words as his lover buried that tongue deep in his ass, relaxing his tight hole ready for Steve’s thick cock. 

Steve was amazed that Danny let him do that, that he stayed still when he pulled away, only long enough to roll a condom over his own rock hard cock, and smother himself with lube. He was willing and able to prepare Danny properly, but the moment he pressed a lube-covered thumb to Danny’s hole his partner protested. 

Danny turned his face away from the pillow to growl: “Just fuck me already. You’re not gonna split me in half.”

Steve, rock hard and burning, didn’t need to be told twice. 

Danny growled again as he was breached, wincing at the slight pain (Steve was not a small boy) but soon enough Steve’s thighs were pressed up against his backside and he was filled completely. Whatever controls Steve thought he had he lost when Danny squeezed his muscles around him to draw him in deeper and murmured his name. “Gods, Danny,” he choked, held onto his hips with his large hands and started to move, gently at first, but soon losing any semblance of taking his time. Again Danny buried his face in a pillow to stop yelling, but in this as everything he couldn’t stop his mouth. Most of it was inarticulate, but Steve could hear his name occasionally, in such a wanton, breathy tone he thought he could come from just hearing him say it. He angled his thrusts a little and knew he got the right spot when Danny froze, squeezed around him again and clenched his fists in the sheets. “Just there,” he groaned and lifted his hips the little he was able to match Steve’s thrusts, taking him deeper. 

That, his words and sounds, and the sight of his hole taking all of Steve’s cock was the SEAL’s undoing. Orgasm rushed through him, from his toes to the end of his hair, centring in his groin, rushing out of his cock to fill the condom. “Danny!” he moaned, his hips stuttering as he felt the pull of powerful internal muscles as Danny ejaculated right along with him. 

Both slumped, spent, against each other, Steve sprawled across his lover’s broad back, and it took a couple of minutes for the SEAL to recover enough to pull out, roll off him and even think about dealing with the condom. 

Danny enlivened a bit quicker than his lover and he turned his head to watch him for a moment before he moved. “Let me,” he said to him and moved a hand to stop him from trying to sort out the condom. Steve stayed still and watched as he got up and padded, naked, into his ensuite, giving him a view he wasn’t going to get tired of. 

Danny returned quickly after cleaning himself off, a washcloth in his hand, and he quickly and efficiently removed the rubber, tied the end and chucked it into a nearby waste bin before he bent and kissed the tip of Steve’s now flaccid penis, grinning. “You can do that again,” he said and laughed when Steve grabbed him with both arms and pulled him close against his chest. 

“You’d better return the favour, Danny,” he murmured, and kissed him again. “Soon.”

Danny laughed again when they broke off and stretched out against him, humming against the skin of his throat. “Later,” he murmured and closed his eyes. Just for a moment of course, he needed to regain his strength for round two. 

TBC...


	6. Chapter 6

David Fitzwalter, Simeon’s useless brother, reminded Danny of his ex-wife’s lawyer: smarmy. He grinned out of the file photo Kono was showing them on her laptop, dressed in an expensive well-fitted suit, his black hair perfectly cut, and: “Is that eyeliner?” he asked incredulously, leaning closer to the screen to see. 

Kono laughed quietly and nodded. “Yep,” she agreed. “And he’s probably got more stuff in his hair than you do.”

Danny covered his slicked back hair with both hands protectively – it had taken him a few minutes to get it right after his shower with Steve a little while ago, and even now he could see his partner’s (lover’s) hand reach for it to mess it up. Again. “Less is more,” he commented, and moved one hand to slap Steve’s away. “Don’t dis the do, man,” he told him with a glare. 

Steve, sitting next to him at the kitchen table, shook his head. “Wouldn’t dare, Danno,” he assured him, trying to look innocent. And failing. 

Danno glared at him a bit more before he turned back to their rookie, sitting across the table from them. But he leant back in his chair so he could keep an eye on Steve’s wandering hands. “Anyway,” he said, trying to get back to work. “Do we know where this lawyer wannabe is? On the islands yet?”

Chin, serene as always, shook his head. “He lives in LA,” he explained to them. “Well, that’s where he’s registered to. But LAPD and the FBI there have been trying, and failing to tie him down to a specific location there. Last intel was that he was taking one of his brother’s cargo ships here, and that was a few days ago.”

Danny nodded. “That ties with what Simeon told me,” he agreed and reached for his notepad in front of him. He flicked to the appropriate page and checked his notes. “He said it was called the Kathryn, after his dead wife.”

Chin nodded and typed for a few moments, and while he did Steve leant close to his partner. “You seemed to have gotten a lot of information from the brother,” he commented. “He seems to trust you.”

Danny shrugged. “We have something in common,” he answered him, touching shoulders. “We’ve both got useless little brothers.”

Steve nodded and simply laid a hand on his partner’s thigh to comfort. Matthew’s betrayal still hurt Danny after all these months and there wasn’t much the Commander could do for him apart from provide comfort when he needed it. Danny didn’t talk about it often, it was one of the many things the blonde firebrand kept to himself, and Steve was the first person to admit he didn’t know how to help him, what to say to make him feel better. So he laid a hand on his thigh and hoped his partner would let him in when he needed to talk about it. 

Danny didn’t move away from him, and laid one of his own hands on Steve’s, interlocking their fingers as he listened to Chin. 

“I think I’ve got the vessel,” the Lieutenant was saying, and he turned his laptop round so they could all see it. He’d pulled up a satellite view of the deep ocean between LA and Hawai’i from the coastguard, and a ship was highlighted on it. “It’s about four hundred nautical miles out,” he explained and reached round to expand the view, squeezing two fingers together on the track pad. “It’s due to dock in Honolulu late tomorrow, or early Tuesday morning.”

“Can we grab him when they dock?” Steve asked him, trying and failing to hide his eagerness. “Have we got enough evidence to do that?”

Danny turned to face him with a grin. “You can learn!” he said, surprised. “My Gods, we’ll make a cop out of you yet!”

Steve refrained from sticking out his tongue at him, but only just. “I don’t want to be a cop, Danny,” he replied instead. “I don’t want to waste my life of endless paperwork. I’ve got you…” 

Danny was going to rant at that one but he was still mellow from ‘lunch’ so nodded instead and gave him his patented ‘most put upon’ sigh. “You do,” he agreed. “And I should be a novelist with all the creative explanations I’ve got to come up with for your next trick with explosives.”

Steve’s reply was cut of by Chin’s loud: “Boys!” and they both turned back to face him with almost identical: “who, me?” expressions. 

Kono hid her own smirk behind her laptop, which didn’t endear her to her cousin either. “Kono, why don’t you explain to the group what we need to do to be able to arrest David Fitzwalter from the Kathryn?” Chin asked her archly, and glared at the two other men in the room, daring them to butt in. Danny, Chin knew, knew all of the information, evidence, forms, warrants etc. Steve would just say: “because we can” and/or “because I want to” neither of which would help Kono learn.

“We need physical evidence to link him to the dealing, and/or Steve’s kidnapping,” she explained clearly. “A search warrant would help, but not necessary if Simeon, the boat owner, gives us his permission to search.” As she continued she and Chin hadn’t noticed Danny’s flinch when she had said ‘Steve’s kidnapping’ but the SEAL had. The words had put Danny straight back in that room, seeing Steve on his side, battered and bruised with a gun aimed straight at his head. 

Steve gently squeezed his hand and reached over to poke him none too gently in the arm. He had to do it a couple of times for his lover to look at him and come back to this place. “I’m right here,” he told him quietly, not letting him go. “You made sure of that.”

As Danny stared at him, eyes wide, holding his hand tightly, the Commander noted something surprising: his eyes were the same colour blue as the bear that had saved him. 

 

*****************************************************************

 

Steve realised a little later that he didn’t like Simeon Fitzwalter, and he liked his kids even less. They were back at the Fitzwalter home, they needed him to make official statements and sign some paperwork, but the guy seemed to want to complain about how his brother had duped him all the time rather than get to specifics.  
He seemed to think he had a kindred spirit in Danny, even though the Detective was not sharing anything with him about his own, and he had virtually ignored Steve, despite his best looming. 

And the kids, a girl and a boy, seemed to be exactly the sort of spoiled brat Danny was scared Gracie would turn into if StepStan had his way. They walked into the living room of the house, saw Chin and Kono at their father’s computer, Danny sitting on the sofa with Simeon, papers in front of them, pen in a hand trying vainly to get the guy to sign, and Steve standing by the window, and ignored all of them. 

“Dad,” the girl said to her father, more like demanding his attention. “My credit card is maxed out. Why haven’t you paid it?”

“And Jamie has a new Xbox Kinect,” the boy stated as he glanced up from his DS toy. “I want one. Send Stretton to get me one.”

Simeon glanced up at them both and sighed. “Hannah, because I’m tired of paying for hundreds of clothes, lunches and crap on ITunes for you and your silly friends. Blaine, I’ve just bought you another Wii because you wanted a red one. Can’t you see I’m busy here?”

Hannah curled her lip at the other four in the room. “You don’t normally bring the hired help home,” she commented. “Why today?”

“And why were we being followed to and from school?” the boy, Blaine asked. 

Steve looked over at him and was surprised that the kid had looked up from his game long enough to notice. “Who was following you?” he asked him firmly, and the kid looked at him, surprised that the tall guy was speaking to him. 

Blaine looked him up and down and eyed the badge clipped to Steve’s belt. “Cops. Like you,” he told him. “What are you doing in my house?” 

“Adult stuff, Blaine,” Danny sparked up, his tone impatient and telling him to butt out. “Simeon, just sign these,” he continued, ignoring the kids completely. “We can then deal with this ourselves.”

Simeon took the pen he offered and was just about to sign the appropriate forms but Hannah chimed in, and Steve found himself stepping forward and placing a hand on Danny’s shoulder to stop him from getting up and getting physical with, probably, Simeon. 

“Dad, don’t,” she said with a sneer. “Phoebe’s Dad is a lawyer and says you should always consult one before signing anything for cops.”

“We don’t need your signature,” Steve told the guy in his firm voice. “We can always just board the ship, pull it apart and let the media and the judge know you didn’t co-operate. Also,” he added as Simeon opened his mouth to protest. “That makes you an uncooperative witness, and us, and HPD don’t provide protection services for those.”

Simeon glared at him, Steve glared straight back, and Danny sighed and nudged the homeowner next to him. “Just sign,” he told him firmly. “You can’t always believe a word any lawyer, or teenager, tells you.”

With a terse nod the guy finally took the pen from Danny’s hand and signed the papers in front of him where the Detective indicated, despite Hannah’s complaints.   
“Thank you,” Danny said gratefully as he picked them all up and snatched back his ‘I ♥ New Jersey’ pen before the other guy could pocket it. He stood and looked over at his teammates. “Time to go,” he stated, but waited for Steve to nod his agreement. 

“We’ll let you know how it goes, Simeon,” the Commander told him, and turned to see Danny already headed for the door. “Don’t let them,” he nodded at the hovering kids. “Tell him we’re on our way. We don’t want him coming here.”

Simeon quickly figured out what he wasn’t saying and stood as well. “Of course, Commander,” he agreed, and before he could offer the SEAL his hand to shake, Steve had turned away from him and was hustling the Cousins out in front of him. 

Danny was already in the driving seat of his Camaro by the time all three escaped the house, and he wasn’t going to budge, despite Steve walking over to stand next to his door. Danny opened the window just a little and smiled up at him as he turned the key in the ignition. “Come on, SuperSEAL,” he commented, amused. “Time’s a wasting. Get in the other side, this seat is occupied by the rightful driver.”

“Right,” Steve retorted drily. “You keep thinking that.”

Danny shrugged and put the car in gear. “You can always catch a ride with Kono,” he told him, closed the window again and moved the car forward a couple of metres, as if to leave. Which made his partner slap the trunk and sprint round to the passenger side, getting in with a growl. “Okay, okay, I’m in,” he said as he slammed the door behind him. “Drive on.” 

Danny huffed, turned on the CD, and drove the car out of the driveway, skipping out before Kono in her Kruze could. 

Steve let him get into the main road before he spoke. “Why the rush to get out?” he asked him curiously as Danny overtook a slow minivan with ease. 

“The moment Simeon tells Hannah and Blaine, and, for the record, who calls their kid ‘Blaine’ and expects him to be straight?” he asked. “Seriously. Anyway, the moment those brats find out we’re going after dear old Uncle David they’re gonna be calling him to warn him,” he explained, overtaking another slow moving vehicle, this one a black and white HPD cruiser. “We’ve got to get everything ready before they make landfall, and get eyes on the ship before they dock. Is that possible?” he asked curiously. “You’re in the Navy, after all. Can you get your Lieutenant Rambo-ette to satellite it?”

Steve stared at him in shock. “My God. You actually said Navy!” he commented, his shock only a little faked. “Are you feeling all right?”

Danny’s grin was toothy. “I’m finally driving my own car!” he retorted. “I’m feeling great. Now answer the question.”

Steve grinned in reply, but shook his head. “Cat gets in trouble if she’s caught using the satellites,” he explained. “The kind that could get her court-martialled. But Chin could probably hack into one without too much of a problem.”

“And I guess we could ask the coastguard nicely to keep an eye on it too,” Danny mused, and glanced at Steve thoughtfully. “I’ll ask them,” he amended.

Steve pouted. “I can do nice,” he told him, affronted. “I’m nice to you.”

Danny laughed, highly amused. “When you’re not trying to get me shot, blown up or maimed in any other spectacular way,” he replied, amused. He glanced in the rear view when he spotted something out of the ordinary, only to find the black and white he overtook a little while back chasing after them, lights and sirens blasting out. With a grin, and because he was in a great mood, he flicked his own lights and sirens on and floored it. The vehicle lurched forward; Steve quickly put a hand out on the dashboard and looked over at him. Danny was concentrating on the traffic, a smile at the corners of mouth, looking cool, calm and in control as he blasted through an intersection at full throttle. Steve quickly put on his seatbelt, sat back and hung on.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some of Steve's singular talents are revealed in this one...

Hurry up and wait was not something any of the 5-0 crew liked to do so they tried to do anything they could rather than sit around and look at each other while they waited on the Kathryn. Steve ended up shouting at the traffic controller of HPD for Danny’s driving, while the man himself stayed in his office and cackled to himself about the justice of it all. Normally it was he having to explain why SuperSEAL had made HPD look slow, so he was very pleased it was the other way round. And it wasn’t actually his fault the rookie driving had scratched the black and white, quite a bit, when he’d driven it into a wall. His training officer should have checked the VIN plates and called HPD as soon as Danny’d flicked on the lights on the Camaro but she hadn’t, and egged the driver on. As Steve was explaining on the phone in his office, loudly. 

Kono walked in to Danny’s office with the paperwork he’s asked her to complete for him, momentarily making Steve’s voice louder as she opened the door, and she handed him the pages with a grin. “You’re gonna have to make it up to him, brah,” she told him as she sat in one of the chairs. “He’s been shouting for twenty minutes.”

Danny grinned at her and shook his head. “Karma is a wonderful thing,” he answered her. “Especially when it goes my way.”

She smiled and nodded sagely. “Very Zen,” she agreed. “Chin would be proud.”

He laughed again and noted the argument had ceased, so looked up to see Steve, face like thunder, stalking over to them. Quickly he picked up the top form Kono had given him and looked over it, pretending he hadn’t been laughing at him a few moments previously. Kono noted the change, realised that it meant, and leant forward herself. “I think I got that one signed properly,” she said just in time for the door to the office to be wrenched open again to let in their BAIC (Bad Ass in Charge). 

Neither of them looked up at his arrival, both used to him by now. “This is the right one,” Danny said instead, checking over the form. “That’s to let us board without being charged with trespassing.”

Steve, well beyond clearing his throat, simply reached over and took the form out of Danny’s hand. He was not stupid, or angry enough to rip it to pieces, he had only ever done that once and had paid the price for a week. But he was tempted, very, even more so when Danny looked up at him with a patient expression. 

“Steven,” he said to him lightly. “Finished your chat with Lieutenant Kariah?”

“She sends her regards,” Steve told him tightly, aneurism face gracing his features. “How often do you have to speak to her?”

“Weekly,” Danny answered him with a smile. “When you’re on top form, daily.”

Steve sighed loudly and handed him back the form. “I’m bored,” he stated. “I’ve shouted myself out. Can we go and get some bad guys now?” 

Danny sighed to himself as Kono looked up and nodded eagerly. “Got any in mind?” she asked him. “We’ve gone down the list quite a way.”

List? “Wait… What?” Danny asked them both, suddenly worried. “You two have a list of people to go after when you’re bored?”

“Sure, Danny,” Kono said brightly as if he should know. “It’s quite extensive. Although we’re running out of players.”

Steve nodded thoughtfully and perched a hip on his partner’s desk. “We’re on week three of this month,” he explained. “But it’s a five week month so we added some more.” He’d also added a couple to his own personal list; there were a couple of his particular targets new to the islands that he had to deal with before they got too comfortable. 

Danny stared at them both. “Week three?” he asked them plaintively. “It’s the tenth today, isn’t it?”

Steve shrugged and tried to look innocent. “It’s been a slow month,” he told him as if that explained everything. And the way Kono was nodding earnestly let him know she agreed with that statement. His dignity couldn’t really stand it if he ran, screaming for Chin, out of his office, but the debate raging in his head was deciding whether he cared more about his dignity than his sanity. Dignity won, although he did concede to laying his head on his desk and lacing his hands together in his hair – his do was never going to recover. “Slow month, of course it is.”

Steve gently patted his shoulder and grinned, his residual anger gone. “It’s okay, partner,” he told him fondly. “I’m sure we can spare some for you, if you get tired of all the paperwork.”

Before the Detective could fashion a suitable, sarcastic reply apart from flipping him an elegant bird with one hand, Chin himself walked in and studied his teammates. “Why are you messing up your hair, Danny?” he asked him, ignoring the other two for a moment. 

“It’s either this or tear it out,” Danny complained, and didn’t look up. “Did you know about their boredom list?” he asked. He dared not look up, just in case Chin wore the same eager expression as his cousin. 

“Which one?” Chin asked him, trying not to smile. “The one about which perps to lean on, or the one about getting steam out of your ears?”

“Chin!” Steve snapped quickly, and his partner knew he was pouting from the sound of his whiney voice. “You said you wouldn’t tell him.”

Chin shook his head. “I don’t think those were my exact words, Steve,” he replied serenely. “Anyway, while you two were going your best to give Danny a stroke, I’ve been working on those guys that attacked you,” he added seriously, finally making the other Detective look up and take notice. 

“You found where they’re from?” Danny asked him quickly, determined to ask Steve about lists later. “Who actually hired them?”

Chin nodded and Danny stood quickly. “Show me,” he told him, all business, and followed him out to the tech table. So far they had only found links to David Fitzwalter, but, despite the amounts of drugs he had been bringing in, he was only a medium fish in a small pond. He was getting his stock from somewhere, and, as any drugs investigation aimed to do, they wanted the bigger fish, and the sharks. Anything they could get to send over to the Feds in LA would help. 

Chin showed him the link chart he had plotted on the table and quickly went through it with the other Detective, Kono and Steve watching them. Danny and Chin were experts at this sort of work, squirreling out links and associations from information they had or found out. Steve was used to pulling things together from information and charts like this already given to him, working out what to do with it once the analysts had found everything out. And Kono was still learning. 

There were still gaps in the charts, information Danny hadn’t managed to get from Simeon, or the files the man had given him. “We’ll get this lot from David’s financials,” he said to Chin, indicating to a large corner of blank with his hand. “Finding out who he pays his money too, if he’s got any hidden accounts, and all that.”  
Chin nodded. “This guy is the boss of the three dead ones,” he explained, and pointed to an icon. He tapped it twice and flicked up the subsequent file onto the main vertical screens. “He’s been paying them regularly for a couple of years.”

Danny nodded and studied the file, Ernesto Arnold Estaban did not look like someone who hired out heavies to drug dealers, he thought to himself. But he had, and he had a string of convictions to his name as well. “Based in LA,” he stated as he read the guy’s address. 

Kono frowned. “Does he run a Goons R Us franchise or something?” she asked curiously. “Did he hire out those three thugs?”

“Looks like it,” Chin answered her. “Danny and I couldn’t find any other link between the three on him, or the three and Fitzwalter. All there is, so far, is an email or two.”

“We may find more when we get access to Fitzwalter’s computers and files,” Danny added, looking over at Steve. “That was one of those forms I asked you to sign. Did you email the electronic copy off?”

Steve stared at the photo of Estaban on the computer screen and tried not to gape at the man depicted in it. He was not only human, and only someone of his special skill set would be able to see it. The demon staring out at him was using that body as a disguise, and it was pretty good, Steve looked around at his other teammates and they had obviously not noticed it. But he could see the red eyes, the horrendous skull covered over by a human face stretched over bones not meant for it, the big form, all sharp edges shoved into a sac of human skin. The expression on the file photo was aiming for bland, but Steve could see the fury leeching out of Estaban as he glared at the camera. The SEAL did have a fleeting thought about the person who had owned that body before the demon had forced it’s way in, whether he had been something other than what it was now, but only fleeting. The man was dead, there was nothing he could do for him now, and it had taken some years of training and in practice for him to realise that was truth. Once the demons he chased down had taken control of a human, however strong they had been, they were gone, dead, the body just a shell, used by interlopers to hide in plain sight. 

He had thought he wouldn’t be seeing any more demons here in Hawaii after he had moved to the reserves, he’d hoped, he’d had enough of chasing and dispatching them during his years in the Navy, and the Kupuna were strong enough to protect the islands from any more. But here was one, staring him in the face, and he tried not to shudder. At least this one was in LA, and not here, but he wasn’t convinced that wouldn’t change; demons weren’t averse to travelling, especially if their interests were being threatened. But he had never backed down from a demon before, his father had made sure he understood his inheritance was a duty never to be ignored. Even if he hadn’t Steve had seen the results of demon infestations before; villages decimated, serial killers running rampant through towns, cities, states, getting more and more violent as they went on, war mongers trying to cause chaos and death, famine and disease as well has violence. Most of the time he’d had a specialised team to deal with them, to take them down, not just made up of SEALS and other military specialists. 

Here though, here he had Chin, a Kupuna – master of earth powers (he could rustle up a tornado with a blink of his eye, persuade lava to run where he wanted it, calm a deluge, call up a tsunami), Kono, the most alpha-like out of all of them, could balance on air, use her considerable will to get people to do what she needed them to, could map out consequences of her actions in her brain in microseconds before she did anything, which was why she was such a great sniper, among other things. 

And then there was Danny, his contrary mood swing of a partner, deadly in his own right, excellent father, cop, partner. There was something with him, something Steve couldn’t identify that marked him out a different from the rest of them, but he had not seen any clue to what it was. He had to find out before they went head to head against a demon, but the blond had kept it secret for a reason, so he was probably not going to tell him if he just asked. It would take something to happen, the SEAL thought to himself as he studied him, something drastic for Danny to come clean. He just hoped it wouldn’t be too desperate or dangerous for him to spill his secrets. 

“Steve?” the man in question asked him, noting his partner was staring at him, through him, and obviously thinking about something else. “You with us?” He nudged him. “Steve?”

Steve jumped slightly and flashed him a glare that made his partner grin before he nodded. Almost as soon as they had started 5-0 they had come to arrangements with themselves and most of the other judiciary and law enforcement agencies on the islands. They used emails and electronic forms for most things, requisitions, requests for information, warrants, wire taps, and almost everything else produced by Danny mostly, checked by Chin if required, and then emailed to Steve for his authorisation. He’d either type it in or copy and paste a scanned in copy of his signature before emailing the files to the address his team had put on the first email. It worked, mostly, only a couple of procedures needing actual paper, and both Danny and Kono were working on getting those changed too – well, Danny would find them and ask Kono to deal with it. And for added security Steve didn’t use his proper signature on them, and they were all read only forms, protected from changed by password and encryptions – after the crappy end to Jamieson’s tenure they were all a bit more cautious with how they did things. “I sent it,” the Commander assured him. “Called and checked they’d received it too.”

Danny nodded. “If the Feds are looking into David Fitzwalter then I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t get contacted, and soon,” he mused. “They’ve probably got flags on him and all his associates.”

“Like we have on Wo Fat and Sang Min,” Kono commented. 

Danny checked the time. “How long have you been working on this guy?” he asked Chin, waving at Estaban on the screen with a hand. 

“About twenty minutes,” the Lieutenant answered him and they both looked at each other as they calculated the time scales. 

“Soon then,” Danny said to him cryptically. 

Chin nodded. “Probably,” he agreed. 

Steve frowned at them, some times, like now; jealous of the conversations they shared. He and Danny had their own conversations that consisted of expressions, hand movements, touch and the occasional well placed grunt, and he liked being able to do that. Danny and Chin, talking copspeak, came from years of being police officers, dealing with the same procedures, jargon and ways of working even though they had been thousands of miles and a few years apart. It rankled on Steve that he had, and still did somewhat, miss out on something that shaped both men, especially his lover. Danny was right, he did have control issues, he did want to know everything about him, and he wanted to be involved in everything he did, but Steve, having lost so much, an barely on the periphery of his own family for years needed to know everything about those he loved. “Soon what?” he asked them both, arms folded over his chest. 

“If the Feds have flagged this guy,” Danny explained to him. “Then we’ll get a call or a visit from them.”

“It depends on how important he is to their investigations,” Chin added and Steve’s continued frown. “If he’s not a priority, or on the sidelines, then they’ll call in the morning their time. Whereas if he’s one of their targets the OIC there might be calling their offices here to find out who we are.”

“And then they might send a couple of people over.” Danny finished for him. 

Steve’s frown deepened, he didn’t like the FBI, mainly because of how they had treated Danny after Matthew had made off. “I’m not handing this over to the Feds,” he said firmly. “And I’m not scared of them either. This is our investigation, if they want in, then they’ll need to play nice with us.”

Danny grinned at him. “I like that sentiment, Commander,” he agreed. 

“We may not have a choice,” Chin warned, the voice of reason. “But it all depends on what they want. If it’s information sharing we need all we can get.”

Steve had to agree with that and he nodded, albeit reluctantly. “Information,” he conceded. “But that’s it. We’ll take whatever they’ve got.”

Danny laughed at him fondly and patted his arm. “Sharing, Steve,” he said, amused. “That might be an unusual concept for you, but it means we give them something and get something back in return.”

The grin Steve gave him suddenly in return was bright and wide. “I don’t share, Danno,” he told him firmly. “I like keeping what’s mine, mine. I don’t have many treasured possessions, but I do, and will, protect the ones I have.”

The other three knew he wasn’t talking about information any more – Chin and Kono could guess what he meant, Danny knew. “Smooth, Dog,” the Haole said, smiling still. “Very smooth.”

Steve laughed and nodded, Danny had a way with his words that could lift his partner’s mood in moments. “Yup,” he agreed with him. “About time you realised it, Danno.”

 

**************************************************************************

 

Turned out Ernesto was important enough to the FBI in LA to warrant a visit from the local Hawai’i field office. Chin got a call from reception but it was scant warning, and two agents walked into the bullpen within the twenty minutes Chin and Danny had stated, identifying themselves quickly – 5-0’s reputation preceded them after all, and all four of them were obviously reaching for weapons. 

Danny was the only one of the four that relaxed enough to move his hand away from his gun, but not far, and he didn’t move towards them. Instead as the other three of his team moved to flank the newcomers, or, in Steve’s case, stood next to him, hand on his holstered Sig, glaring at them both. “Who are you?” the Jersey Detective asked them both. “Put your IDs on the table and tell us what you want.”

The pair of agents, a man and a woman, both native Hawaiians by their features and skin colour, both in almost identical black suits, looked at each other before they complied. They both slowly reached for their IDs and put them on the tech table before stepping back. Steve quickly snatched them up and handed them over to his partner, not having to look at him to know exactly where he was. 

Danny took them both and studied them carefully, not planning on taking any chances. He had a friend who had contacts in the LA FBI office and he was going to call him the moment he could to double check. But he read the woman’s ID and found himself grinning – Amelia Johnson, Special Agent. The guy had a more Hawaiian name – Kai Kaloa, and he glowered at Danny, almost daring him to say anything. The Detective, who lived and breathed Steve McGarrett’s many faces, was not in the least bit intimidated by the taller guy, and he found himself smiling. “Special Agent Johnson,” he greeted the woman with a grin and a thumb indicating Steve. “He’s Steve McGarrett, not to be mistaken for McLean.”

She got the joke, if no one else did, and gave him a wry grin. “Ooh, I’ve never heard that one before. Much,” she said dryly, and Danny decided there and then that he liked her. He walked round the tech table and handed the IDs back before holding his hand out for her to shake, and then Kaloa. “Hi,” he greeted them both. “I’m Danny Williams, Danny,” he told them. “These are my teammates Chin Ho Kelly and Kono Kalakaua,” he indicated to the two cousins, relaxing either side of him. “I’ll leave you to figure out which is which. And the big guy behind me is the boss, Commander Steve McGarrett. We presume you’re here because we’ve tripped a flag or two?”

Kai nodded. He was still not a happy chappy but had been polite enough to shake Danny’s hand when offered and nod at the other three. “We’ve been called by the LA field office,” he told him firmly. “You’re fishing around a couple of their nominals and they want to know why.”

Steve, standing behind Danny, bristled enough that his partner felt it from there. “Classified,” he growled and glared at him. Danny could tell he was wearing his ‘I’m-gonna-kill-you-with-my-shoelace’ face number 5, even from behind him. “Need to know. And you and your masters in LA don’t need to know.”

Kai glowered at him. “Yes they do,” he retorted. “And if you don’t cooperate we have the authority to take over your investigation. Now.”

Steve stepped up to Danny’s side and smiled at the two, no humour it. “No, you don’t,” he replied. “And if you want to force the issue our interrogations cells are empty.” 

Danny fought the urge to sigh and roll his eyes, and Amelia quite obviously stood on her partner’s foot. 

“We’re here to see if we can help, Commander,” she said to the angry SEAL. “We may have some more information that you’re not yet aware of.”

Steve was silent for a few moments while he thought about it. “Then pass it over,” he said eventually. “And if it’s good enough we might let you in to observe.” He didn’t say where from, and knowing him Danny could guess he meant from their offices. He knew as well that his boss wasn’t going to say anything else, so he stepped in. 

“What do you know?” he asked them both, stepping forward. “What have you got? And do you need hardware to access it?”

 

**************************************************************************

 

Soon enough he and Chin were working with the two FBI officers at the tech table. Amelia had quickly apologised for her partner after Steve had simply left them to it and gone back to his office to simmer, had then logged on to a computer and downloaded all she could from the FBI servers. A lot of it they already had, but it was more info for their charts, filling in some more links. It was getting more obvious David was in debt to Estaban for a lot of money, not just the three mercenaries he had hired. And it also looked like Estaban was a major player in LA, David only one of his dealers/contractors. He wasn’t the only person who had hired mercenaries from him on Hawai’i either. They took the details of those people too, all three of the 5-0 personnel working knew their boss would be going after those people next. 

Steve looked up from his own research when he heard his office door open and managed a small smile for his partner who was walking in. He had his own sources, mostly from the Navy, and his own extensive research. He couldn’t ‘smell’ anything off about the two FBI agents, or the Fitzwalters, but Estaban reeked of it. From the FBI’s records he had stayed under the radar for most hunters, just acting like an organised crime boss, but he had managed to gobble up a couple of smaller fish in his pond (whether he had done that literally was anyone’s guess). He didn’t want anything like that anywhere near his partner and lover, or the rest of his ohana. At all. 

Danny smiled back and walked over to him and perched on the desk in front of his boss, lover, friend. “Are you all right?” he asked him, shifting a long so he was directly in front of Steve. 

Steve nodded and laid a hand on Danny’s thigh. “I’m okay,” he answered him. “That guy is an asshole, and he pissed me off.”

Danny smiled at him a little under and covered his hand with his own. He wanted to do other things, like maybe kiss that annoyed twist to his mouth away, hug him maybe or at least rub away some of the tension in the back of his neck and shoulders, but he was aware, as was Steve, of the glass walls. And the aforementioned asshole FBI agent was watching them. “Really?” he said instead, his tone dry and amused. “I must not have noticed that one.”

Something in his tone and words made the Commander relax a bit and he leant back in his chair. “We could put them in a cell for a few hours,” he suggested with a smirk. “Let them out when we’re done. I’m sure no one would notice, for a couple of days at least.” 

Danny laughed and shook his head. “However much I would like to, I think someone would notice if two FBI agents went missing,” he replied, amused. “Especially if they turned up in our cells.”

Steve shrugged. “Maybe that’s why they’ve been sent here,” he added nonchalantly. “Their bosses want to get rid of them for a while.”

“Mmm,” Danny mused thoughtfully. “Maybe we’ll do it if their info doesn’t pan out,” he commented. “And they have given us a lot of stuff. They’ve probably got more in LA too.”

Steve frowned again. “Why wouldn’t they share it all?” he asked him. 

Danny shrugged. “Could be lots or reasons,” he answered him. “Maybe it’s from confidential sources, covert surveillance, from victims, that sort of stuff. Amelia’s checking now.” 

Steve nodded and then gave him a half smile. “I am so like John McLean, just so you know,” he commented, virtually out of the blue.

Danny grinned and reached forward and ruffled his hair. “No you’re not, Babe,” he argued. “He’s got all the good one liners, and you’ve got too much hair.”

TBC...


	8. Chapter 8

They couldn’t do much more until the cargo vessel landed in Hawai’i, and that was going to be late the next evening if Chin’s satellite tracking was up to standard. So Danny called Rachel and arranged to pick up Gracie from home so he could spend some time with her. Rachel was fine with that and Danny bundled Steve into the car and took him with him. 

And while the pair of them were entertaining each other in the shallows of Steve’s beach Danny took the time to call his Mom.

She wasn’t very impressed when he admitted to what had happened, until he explained about Steve and the bear. She knew exactly what that meant. “You need to tell him, Child of Mine,” she told him fondly. “Then you need to bring him so I can give my approval. Or not.”

“Ma!” Danny protested as he watched Steve fling a shrieking, laughing Grace into the air and catch her easily before falling back into the waves, laughing too. “There’s nothing to disprove.”

“Really?” she questioned archly. 

Danny laughed at her tone. “Really, Ma,” he agreed, amused. “You’d love him, I’ll bring him to see you, soon, I promise.” 

“Good, Danny,” she laughed back. “Right in the middle of winter so I can wrap him up, nice and warm.”

“Hanging up now, Ma,” Danny retorted, highly amused at his mother’s words. “Give my love to Pop and the others.”

“Only if you send me another photo of your man, Danny-mine,” she retorted, amused too. “He’s hot.”

He laughed at her and hung up, shaking his head as he watched Steve and Grace say a few words to each other and then turn to look at him at the same time, matching thoughtful smiles on their faces. How is this his life? he thought to himself. When his Mom lusted after his partner and his daughter and said partner were conspiring against him? He was so screwed. And he wouldn't change it, at all. 

 

**********************************************************************************

 

The Kathryn was a small cargo ship, painted in blue and fully loaded. And on time too. Danny didn’t mind so much that she docked a few minutes after midnight on Tuesday morning - he had dropped Gracie off at school Monday morning and just gone back to Steve’s and back to bed for a few hours. He’d even managed to persuade his SuperSEAL back into bed with him, and had woken up early afternoon with Steve plastered up against him, dark head resting on Danny’s chest, with his many limbs entangled around him. They’d stayed like that for a while, explored again, and Danny had decided Steve really did excel at everything he tried his hands, and other parts of his anatomy. 

Now though, he said in his car, in the driver’s seat (yes, twice in one week!) parked on the dock in an out of the way place while they watched and waited for the ship to dock. Deciding well, Chin and himself had decided, Kono and Steve had been sorting out their toys with various levels of glee; that back up was necessary and not to spook the bad guys, so they were all hidden around the dock, waiting.

The Detective watched as the ship floated slowly to the dock, only about six of the sixteen crew members were out on deck, shouting at each other and the couple of dockers on land, waiting for the mooring lines to be thrown over. 

Steve was fidgeting beside him, hand over his Sig in the holster on his tac vest over his left pec, the one Danny really, really liked, the other hand tapping an inane rhythm on his knee. He was staring out of the windshield at the ship in front of them, probably deciding how many grenades and how much C4 it would take to sink her, Danny thought to himself. 

With a smile at that the Detective lifted the R/T he held in one hand to his mouth, flicked it on and spoke. “This is Papa Bear,” Danny said in to, mentally laughing at the code name. “Everyone in position?”

Steve was silent as all of the affirmatives came in but he turned to face him for a moment when the last of the SWAT team members called in. “Papa Bear? Really?”

Danny grinned at him with a shrug. “Blame Kono,” he commented and turned back to the ship in front of him. It was well lit, they weren’t trying to get in and out unseen, and it was a legitimate drop after all. Now there was a figure standing on the bow of the Kathryn, watching the people work, and both Steve and Danny moved their binoculars to their eyes, almost in unison. 

“That’s our guy,” Steve identified him. 

Danny nodded and lifted the R/T up to his mouth again. “Be advised, David Fitzwalter is standing on the bow.” He paused. “Forecastle,” he added, making Steve’s eyebrows crawl into his hair. “He’s our target.”

“Roger that,” he got from SWAT and HPD officers, but from Chin he got: “You been reading up on ships, brah?” he asked him, amusement obvious in his voice. 

Danny laughed. “Pirates of the Caribbean, Babe,” he replied, getting some laughter in response, and something that sounded suspiciously like “argg” from the SWAT team leader. 

Danny, in charge still, let them laugh at his expense before he called for order. “All right, peeps,” he told them all over the radio, and nudged Steve who was still grinning at him. “Be ready to move, on my mark.”

He watched the activity going on in front of them, and just as the dockers started moving the gangplank, Steve leant over to him so he could whisper in his ear. “You can shiver me timbers any day, Danno,” he told him, amused. “Savvy?”

Danny laughed, (what else could he do?), patted his thigh and nodded. “I’ll keep you to that, Babe,” he told him. “Ready to go blow things up?”

When Steve nodded and put his hand on the door handle Danny quickly glanced back out of the window and took a breath. “Papa Bear to all cubs,” he said sharply in his R/T. “It’s a go, it’s a go. Move in, move in!”

And they were off. Of course Steve had to be first up the gangway, shouting “5-0!” as he did it, Danny yelling down his radio, running behind him. They were tailed by SWAT officers who quickly spread out throughout the boat, while Danny and Steve headed for the last place they had seen their target. 

Luckily it was a small ship, they had both memorised the plans, and when Steve shimmied up the ladder Danny went round the side of the superstructure to the only other way of the raised bow without jumping into the sea and quickly, carefully, ducked around every nook and cranny for their quarry. It didn’t take long, Steve was doing the same up top, and they met in the middle, all three of them with Fitzwalter in the centre. He was trying to climb down another ladder, and looked down at Danny, calculating the odds when he found him and yelled up at him. “David Fitzwalter!” Danny called, Sig aimed straight at him as the guy hung off the ladder. “5-0. We need to talk to you.”

His call had alerted Steve to his location and he had caught up with the guy, so he stepped it up and sprinted the last couple of steps to the top of the ladder. He looked down, saw Danny and Fitzwalter and the gun the guy had tucked in his waistband. 

“5-0 huh?” Fitzwalter said snidely down at Danny. “I thought you’d be taller. Where’s your boss, McGarrett? Did you lose him?”

Danny was more experienced (calm and good), than the guy gave him credit for and he didn’t shoot him for the insult or the implied kidnapping. Instead he let Steve.

“Right here,” his partner replied, making the guy look up in shock. Steve grinned at him, all evil teeth, and indicated to the man with his own Sig, held in both hands. “Drop the gun and make your way down to my partner,” he ordered, and watched as Fitzwalter thought about it. Some gunfire, and several shouts of “clear!” from the SWAT teams solved his question for him. He did as he was told, dropped the weapon onto the deck beside Danny and climbed down slowly, every move watched by the two 5-0 officers. 

Steve waited and watched as Danny holstered his weapon and quickly cuffed their reluctant prisoner tightly, hands behind his back. Fitzwalter sneered up at Steve, expecting him to show some sort of injury, but he was mistaken. Steve locked his arms around the ladder’s uprights and used them to slide easily down it, landing lightly on his feet in front of the other guy with a grin. “David Fitzwalter, you’re under arrest for drug trafficking, attempted murder, kidnapping, money laundering, tax evasion, among other things,” he told him, evil grin still in place. And then, to Danny’s complete amazement, stated to read the guy his Miranda rights!

Between then they escorted Fitzwalter to the dock and HPD, Danny giving the guy a shove down the gangway and hoping he would stumble, but he didn’t. He sighed, and then flicked on his radio. “Papa Bear to all cubs,” he said down it. “Report.”

Everyone called in, none of the good guys were injured, two crewmen who had opened fire on the team Kono lead had paid for it, and another nine were in custody apart from the Captain. “Fitzwalter is in custody,” he informed everyone. “We need to find the Captain.” He listened to all the affirmatives and then turned to Steve, who had watched while Chin had grabbed their guy and shoved him into a cruiser on his own. “I’d feel better if you stayed on land, Steve,” he told him, knowing what the answer could be but he had to try. “SWAT and I can find the guy.”

Steve just lifted one eyebrow and shook his head. “I’ll stay on top decks, okay?” he suggested after a few moments of watching each other stubbornly. “I’m fine, Danny, you made sure of that,” he reassured him and stepped close. “I’ll even take a couple of officers as back up, maybe Kaloa. As long as you do too.”

Danny sighed, trying to sound put upon, but in truth he was grateful. He had known he wouldn’t get Steve safety on land with Chin, but getting him to stay on the top with SWAT and a Fed where he could get to safety quickly was better than nothing. “All right,” he agreed, and before he could lose the argument he called Biggs and Kealoha, the largest and most experienced SWAT officers, and Agent Kaloa to back up Steve, while he gathered up another two to help him. 

They headed down the three of them meeting other SWAT and HPD searching, so Danny decided to head down to the lowest decks. 

It was dark and dank below, surprising for him on a ship like this, and Danny was glad there were two guys taller than Steve flanking him as they stepped over bulkheads and checked out dark, empty rooms. They must have been only a couple of decks above the bilges when they finally hit pay dirt. They slipped around a corner into yet another corridor when the lead SWAT, Terry Wu, held up a hand to stop them, and almost punched Danny in the face. “Light at the end of the tunnel,” he murmured to the other two, and let them fan out beside him. 

It was true; there was light coming from under the door at the end of the short corridor. It was the only exit and Danny nodded. “Typical, the guy is hiding out in the lowest place on the whole boat,” he murmured, making the other two grumble with laughter. 

They made their way down the corridor to the door and Danny quickly noted the door wasn’t completely shut. He pushed it open slowly, the three of them expecting a shout, some gunfire, anything to show the guy had noticed, but nothing. Even when Danny slipped into the room and ducked down, out of sight, from the guy fumbling around with something in the centre. 

The Detective had to blink a couple of times to clear his vision from the bright light, but when he had he wished he hadn’t. They seemed to have found a meth lab, quite an extensive one from the size of the space and the amount of equipment he could see around him. But what he hadn’t expected to see was the blocks of C4 scattered everywhere, linked together with wiring. Danny moved, panicked, and saw the Captain they were looking for standing in the centre of the space, next to the biggest pile of C4 Danny had ever seen. He quickly fished out his phone from under his vest and snapped off a few photos of the pile, the guy and the lab before expertly emailing them to Chin before he stood and made his presence known. “What the hell are you doing?” he demanded, making the guy jump and stare at him. 

Captain Lopez looked around him, spotted the other two SWAT officers with Danny and decided he was scuppered, literally. “Clearing up,” he told him, and raised his right hand. The weapon in it was small, from what Danny could see it was a Baby Glock, and the guy aimed it straight at him. 

Danny gaped at him. “You’re gonna shoot that in here?” he demanded incredulously. “That’s as crazy as McGarrett!”

Lopez shrugged and quickly used his free hand to flick the timer on the detonator hidden in his other hand. “We’re all going to go out with a bang,” he told him, and before the other three could stop him he turned the Glock on himself and pulled the trigger.

“Shit!” Danny yelled and ducked, expecting the lab to blow up around him, but looked up again when that didn’t happen. Instead he quickly moved over to the guy, took one look at what was left of the Captain’s head, and ignored him. The pile of C4 was large, a detonator on the top of it, counting down in seconds. “Do either of you know who to defuse this?” he asked the two officers with him. When they shook their heads Danny quickly shooed them back out of the room and flicked on his radio, trying hard not to panic. “This is Papa Bear to all officers!” he shouted as he began to sprint down the corridor behind the SWAT officers. “Evacuate! Evacuate! Everyone off the boat, now! It’s rigged to blow! Biggs, Kealoho!” he added as he reached the bottom of the nearest stairs up. “Get McGarrett off the ship!”

Then he just concentrated on running, climbing, and trying to get up a couple of decks. There had only been 45 seconds on the timer when he had looked at it, not enough time to get anywhere safely, and the amount of C4 there was enough to blow the Kathryn out of the water. All he could do was run, dodge the heavy gear his two companions were dropping in their haste, and hope people were getting off as he had ordered. He could hear Steve’s panicked voice in his ear piece yelling his name, sounding desperate, especially when he heard the Commander telling Biggs he was going to shoot him if he didn’t put him down. 

At least Steve was near the top decks and would be safe, Danny thought to himself as he felt the first of the explosions under his feet, and one of his companions grab his arm and yank him up the last two steps onto the main residential deck, still three levels below the gangway. 

They were never going to make it, both of them knew it as they swapped looks, but Terry didn’t get to be SWAT without being a stubborn son of a bitch. He didn’t let go of Danny’s arm, kept on towards the wider stairs, and shoved his other teammate in front of them both. 

Danny followed, but it seemed between one step and the next the floor, walls and everything just disintegrated around them in a burst of excruciating noise, blinding light and scorching heat as the main pile of C4 exploded five decks below them. 

TBC...


	9. Chapter 9

Steve, bundled on to the dock by his own implacable protection team, could do nothing but yell as the ship in front of them blew from the bottom outwards. 

The shock wave almost pushed him onto his ass but he hung onto a nearby crate and stayed upright when people closer didn’t. So he could see the flames screaming out of the doors, windows and any other gaps, and then the superstructure simply disintegrated into large pieces of shrapnel that blew across the dock and into the sea all around the ship. The only thing of any size that was left was the lower half of the stern that quickly sank. “Danny!” Steve shouted and tried to fight the two holding him to get to his partner but they held him back. All he could do was watch in horror as the water, rubble and other debris disturbed by the blast settled back into the harbour, taking his partner with it. 

 

*********************************************************************

 

Danny came aware slowly, the burning pain in his back, torso and head rousing him. It took a few moments to figure out what was happening, where he was, who he was, and he looked around him with eyes, senses that he wouldn’t normally have. 

The harbour floor was close to his nose; he could smell and taste the oil, fuel and other stuff in the water, and the sharp, coppery tang of blood. He flipped his tail fluke and moved forward over the sand, dodging floating debris. He looked up, using his superior vision to scan the area, spotted the floating wreckage on the surface, and some humans hanging off it. There weren’t many, and with his extra senses he picked out the ones that were more vulnerable, more injured than the others. 

He pushed back his Orca needs – it would be easy for the big whale to snap up the tasty morsels, but Danny knew these people, so he came up slowly underneath the one leaking the most blood. The guy, still alive, he could hear his heart beat, let him nudge him to the surface, too exhausted to care what was going on. Danny pushed him gently with a fin towards the dock and several officers shouting, reaching out to him, before he turned and dived again for the next one. 

 

*********************************************************************

Chin stared in horror as the ship blew, he’d heard Danny’s yell of evacuate and orders to get McGarrett out, so he headed for the SEAL himself when the water had subsided, making sure Steve was on land. Then they watched, stunned, as the Kathryn just disappeared in front of them. “Danny?” Steve murmured in shock, and then louder: “Danny!” he shouted, and pulled out of the people holding him and ran. 

Chin followed him and stopped him from diving into the maelstrom in front of them. He grabbed him again, pulled him back and shook his head. “We’ll do more up here,” he explained quickly as McGarrett glared at him. “We have people in the water, others needing medical help. You need to coordinate, Steve,” he told him firmly, knowing the Commander worked best in a crisis. “We can search for Danny too.”

Steve nodded and saw his sense. If, no WHEN they found Danny he was going to need medical attention, so he pulled himself together and got down to business.   
Chin watched as Lieutenant Commander McGarrett stepped up, putting Steve, Danny’s partner and best friend to the side for the moment before he made for the chaos of the dock himself. Danny was his friend too, and he wasn’t going to leave him floating in the ocean. 

It was chaos, but soon controlled. Steve called for paramedics and coast guard, not that they weren’t on their way already, and Kono was already yelling at HPD officers to either guard the prisoners or go down to the dock to help with the rescue. 

Soon enough people were pulling SWAT officers out of the water, while others were standing back and acting as spotters. Chin and Steve both looked up when someone’s shout overruled the others, only to see where he was pointing. 

A large black and white shape rose from the rough waters, lit by the lights they brought to aid the search. It was an Orca, not as large as it could be, and it was gently nudging a piece of wood towards the dock. Steve saw a SWAT officer, Wu he thought, draped over the wood and he jogged towards the edge, towards the trio of more adventurous HPD officers reaching for the unconscious Terry. The whale looked up at him as it got close, pushing the wooden raft into the waiting hands, studied Steve for a moment with it’s piercing blue eyes, and then sank back beneath the surface, flicking one large tail fluke at them. 

Steve stared at it, where it had disappeared, and could hardly believe what he was thinking. Killer Whales did not have blue eyes, they didn’t tend to be so close to shore, especially in such a busy harbour, and they definitely didn’t tend to rescue SWAT officers. But it had, and even as he stared at the water someone shouted again nearby and he saw it come back again, this time with a miserable HPD officer’s arm in it’s jaws in a gentle grip, dragging the man towards the dock. 

Again those blue eyes sought McGarrett out and he couldn’t pull away from their gaze. “Danny?” he murmured in disbelief, or maybe asking it for help. “Please, find Danny.”

 

*********************************************************************

 

Danny the Orca handed (mouthed?) the officer over to those reaching for him and found Steve’s well known gaze on him. He knew what that face him partner was wearing was; his what-the-ever-loving-fuck? face, and if he could have smiled he would have. Then he heard him, his superior hearing in this form easily picked out his partner’s voice: “Danny?” a question, and the Detective knew he needed to explain, and soon. And then: “Please, find Danny,” – a plea and something Danny could do for him. He quickly flipped a tail and sank again, doing a circuit of the area one last time for any more people splashing around in the water. Everyone was being pulled in, even as he watched his own back up was being pulled into a Coast guard speedboat not far away. It was just himself now, and he looked around for something to use as a float and an excuse for why he’d been invisible for a few minutes. And that piece of bulkhead peaking out from under the dock would do. 

It took a minute or two to get over to it; he was tiring fast, and took a breath before he changed back. He grabbed onto the metal with his cold hands and looked around him, blinking the salt water from his eyes to see. He was a bit out of the way of the rescuers, but not too far, and he decided he really wanted to get out of the water now. So he bunched his feet up and shoved against the dock’s upright by his feet, and let the metal sheet float into range of the searchlights. It wasn’t too much of a stretch to act virtually unconscious, the pain in his back had intensified when he had turned back, and it was joined by new pain in his legs. Burns he thought to himself as heard the first shouts when he was spotted, which he could use as an explanation for his nakedness. 

 

*********************************************************************

 

Steve was getting more and more panicked as time went on; people were being pulled out of the water, mostly alive, but not Danny, no sign of Danny. He had to be somewhere, the SEAL couldn’t see the whale any more, and he was hoping that meant he was going to be found, soon. But he couldn’t see him, however much he looked, and it was getting more and more tempting to dive into the sea himself and find him. 

Which was when Kono started shouting. She was on a piece of dock that jutted further out to sea with a couple of officers, and Steve looked over at her curiously. Then he started running towards her when she yelled: “Danny!” and pointed into the sea. 

By the time Steve got there she and the officers were already pulling the other Detective out of the water. He was naked, wet and from what Steve could see as he got to his side burned – which would explain the lack of clothes (some would have been burnt off and some Danny would probably pulled off). One of the HPD officers took off her own jacket and draped it over his waist at the Commander and Kono quickly got to work on him. 

Steve’s fingers found his partner’s pulse point in his throat as Danny lay still in front of him; he was very, very pleased to find a relatively strong pulse. He was breathing too, and even as Steve watched Danny forced his eyes open and blinked up at him. 

The SEAL grinned and tried not to sob in relief. “Danny,” he said to him quietly and cupped his cheek in one palm as other people ran down the jetty. “Don’t do that again.”

 

TBC...


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny's big reveal!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've written a couple of versions of this, I think this one is the best one! 
> 
> (Also you may notice Fryer in this one, I don't really know any other specific cops in HPD that Steve can't stand!)

Danny woke slowly, forcing his eyes open with a bit of a struggle. He looked around him, pleased he was back in his own form, but not so pleased that he was in hospital. But it could be worse, he thought to himself, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d woken up in an animal form – scared the living crap out of Rachel the first time she had woken up with a koala (they’d been watching Steve Irwin the night before). 

He checked his injuries, taking stock. His back hurt but not too badly, his legs too, and his right arm was very heavy. He glanced over to find the reason why – Steve had a tight hold of it. The Commander was sitting next to his bed, using a laptop one handed, concentrating on the screen. He had a frown marring his forehead, he looked tired but otherwise unscathed, and when Danny squeezed his hand he looked up and grinned at him. 

“Danny,” he greeted him, his smile bright and pleased. “You’re awake.”

“Uhuh,” Danny rasped, his throat dry. “We’ll make a detective out of you yet.”

Something Danny couldn’t read flickered across his partner’s face at that but before he could question him Steve had closed the laptop and placed in on the table next to him. He picked up a bottle of water, let go of Danny’s hand momentarily to unseal it, and handed it over. “Drink slowly,” he instructed, and watched as his partner did do. 

Danny’s hands didn’t shake as much as he had thought they would and he drank about a third of the bottle before he handed it back. “Thanks, Babe,” he said gratefully, his voice a lot closer to his usual tone. “Are you all right? Not hurt?”

Steve shook his head and reached for his hand again. “I’m fine,” he told him, his expression grim. “But please don’t ever do something like that to me again.”

Danny looked at him for a moment, the protest that Steve did things like that to his partner on a daily, some times hourly basis, dying on his lips as he saw the SEAL’s scared expression. Instead he squeezed his hand and tried to sound reassuring. “I’ll try not to,” he said to him. “I’ll try to avoid an sort of floating meth lab loaded with C4 in the future.”

Steve quirked a small smile at him and nodded. “See that you do,” he agreed. “Next time we’ll send Fryer in.”

Danny nodded. He thought for a few moments before he said anything and realised he couldn’t really sugar coat it. “Did we lose any people?” he asked his partner, meaning their back up. 

Steve looked up over at him and shook his head. “No,” he answered him. “And that’s the weird thing, Danny,” he added, studying him. “We could have lost you, some SWAT as well. But there was an Orca that helped us.” He was watching him closely, and Danny had to school his face. 

He frowned. “Seriously?” he asked him, hopefully disbelieving. “That’s a killer whale, right? What the hell would that be doing in the harbour?” he asked when Steve nodded. 

“I don’t know,” the Commander answered him, watching him closely. “And it had big blue eyes too,” he added. “Same as the bear. The thing is, Danny,” he continued when he got no reply about that observation. “Orcas and black bears don’t have blue eyes, especially ones the same colour as yours. And both times these things appeared, you were nowhere to be seen.”

“Clark Kent, huh?” Danny asked him after a few moments, but didn’t say anything else for a few more. Steve was silent, just watching him and Danny sighed. “What do you want me to say, Steve?” he asked him bluntly, but didn’t wave his arms around, it hurt. “That I’m the orca? The bear? Is that what you want to hear?”

“Are you?” Steve asked him, watching him carefully. “I’ve been all over the world, in places you’ve probably not even heard of. I’ve seen a lot of things, things that I would never have believed otherwise,” he explained and used an arm to indicate Hawai’i in general, in a very Danny-esque manner. “Things here too, that I wouldn’t have believed. Done a lot of things too. So don’t be worried if you think I won’t believe you.”

Danny sighed. He had known this was going to happen at some time, but had thought he would have time to prepare. “Okay,” he said to him, and laid a hand out on the bed beside his partner’s. “Watch.” It took him a moment to decide what he was going to do but then took a breath and changed the limb into the one he had selected, watching Steve’s reactions as he did so. 

Steve stared down at the hand in question and gaped at it in shock when it changed into a wing. The feathers were white, long and, when Steve reached out to touch them, very soft. “Can you fly?” he asked his partner, quietly awed. 

Danny shook his head with a huffed laugh. “No,” he admitted. “I never learned how. My Mom couldn’t and the guy near us that could…” he paused and then shook his head. “Anyway, no.”

Steve frowned and studied him, there was obviously something he wasn’t telling him, but that could wait. “Is there anything you can’t turn into?” he asked him curiously. “Does it hurt? How did you find out how you could do it? Can all your family? Grace? What…?” Once he started thinking about it the questions flooded out of him and Danny, his hand back to normal, raised it to stop him. 

“One at a time!” he protested good-naturedly when Steve looked up at him. “Yes, most of my family can, but only my Dad and I practised enough to do… to change into some of the stuff we can do.” He shook his head ruefully. “Matt, I don’t think, does it any more.”

Steve nodded thoughtfully. “What about trouble?” he asked him quietly. “I mean, I could imagine some scientists, military and other people want it.”

Danny nodded grimly. “One of my cousins showed off to his friends once.” He closed his eyes and shuddered. “Word got out and he turned out to be the first kidnapping case I ever had to work on. When we got him back he was a mess.”

Steve could understand that, why they stay quiet, but he could feel his anger fizzle up from the middle of his chest. He thought Danny could and did trust him, but maybe… maybe he was wrong about that? Could he be that wrong? Obviously was the answer, but that didn’t help him calm down any, the opposite was happening. However, he had to try and get something out of him, something to redeem the silence, to explain it. “Did he survive?” he asked him quietly. 

Danny nodded. “Only just,” he answered. “Which is why we stay quiet about it.” 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Steve snapped at him, losing his fight with his own anger, feelings of betrayal, and stood, shoving the chair away behind him as he did so. “I thought you trusted me.”

Danny stared at him for a moment, surprised at his vehemence. “What…?” he murmured, and then glared at him. Steve was standing a few feet from his bed, staring out of a window, arms folded across his chest; looking for all the world like Danny had just told him he’d killed Joe White. “I trust you, Steve!” he snapped at him. “I trust you with my daughter’s life. Don’t be a dick.”

Steve turned to face him. “When?” he demanded of him and strode back over. “When were you going to trust me enough to tell me?”

“When I needed to,” the other man replied, refusing to stop looking at him. “You don’t understand what it’s like having to hide something that is a part of me, a part of my family, just in case someone finds out.” 

Steve glared at him. “Do you really think I would ever do something that would endanger Grace?” he demanded of him. “That I would do something to endanger you? Do you think that little of me?”

“Goddamn it Steve!” Danny snapped at him in reply. “What do you want from me? I’ve just told you why I’ve not said anything. It’s not as if I can just put it into everyday conversation.” He glared at him. “Maybe in interrogation? Or when I’m booking someone because you seem to be incapable. Oh, by the way, not only am I your stress relieving sidekick, I can shift into different animals as well. I can already see how that would have gone down.”

Despite himself Steve quirked the corner of his mouth in the semblance of a grin. “Stress relieving, seriously?” he queried. “But no,” he added, calming down. “You could have mentioned it some time, Danno, maybe when you were shouting at me in the car, or, I don’t know,” He shrugged. “When you were drinking my beer on my beach.”

Danny refused to feel guilty about keeping his secrets, despite how difficult that was for him. “I had my reasons for keeping it to myself,” he retorted. “I’ve already had to deal with losing my brother and Meka. And then there’s almost losing you to Wo Fat and Korea, and Grace to Peterson. Are you really asking me why I didn’t want to let anyone know? You? The master of classifieds, of hiding everything from everyone? The only reason I know you so well is because I’m excellent at reading people.” 

He studied him for a moment before he added a nasty coup de grace. “And if you were really looking, you would have noticed. You’ve only noticed now, when I’ve shifted three times in the last couple of weeks, to save your sorry butt, but not the many times before.”

Steve frowned and shook his head. “That’s not fair, Danny,” he stated darkly. “I have to keep things secret, to keep people safe,” he commented, but then suddenly realised what he had said and what Danny had tried to explain to him a few moments earlier. “All right, I get that,” he added at the ‘look’ his partner gave him. “But it’s just, everyone has lied to me, I didn’t expect it from you, too.”

Danny shook his head. “I haven’t lied to you,” he told him firmly. “I may have not told you everything about myself, but have you told me everything there is to know about you?” he countered. 

Steve looked away momentarily and shook his head. “There’s not much to tell,” he replied, and was going to say other things, but Danny shook his head. 

“Bullshit,” his companion snapped back. “Now who’s lying to me? You can’t have it all your own way you know, McGarrett. If you expect me to tell you everything, then you need to give me some things in return. Like – what’s the deal with Lieutenant Rollins? She still your girlfriend? Am I the piece of ass you fuck when she’s not around?”  
Steve unfolded his arms to throw them in the air in a Danny move of frustration. “She’s not my girlfriend, for crying out loud!” he exclaimed. “I told her about us, that we couldn’t be fuck buddies any more.” He shook his head and then suddenly realised what his partner had done to him. “And don’t think you’ve managed to get me away from the main point of our conversation, Detective Williams.” he said firmly. “You lied to me by omission.” 

Danny shook his head. “Bit like you when you tell me you’re fine, when you’re not. You lie blatantly to me then.”

Steve growled in frustration and shook his head. “And you’re back on me,” he grumbled. “Danny,” he groaned and used a hand to cover his eyes. “Stop deflecting.”

“What do you want me to do?” Danny asked him bluntly. “Do you want me to move out? To transfer back to HPD? I can’t leave Hawaii, Grace is here. But I can…”

Steve uncovered his eyes and stared at him in horror. “No way in hell are you doing either of those things, Williams!” he snapped at him. “You and Grace are not moving out of my house, and you are definitely not transferring back to HPD. I don’t trust them with you, I don’t trust you with them.”

Danny frowned. “Is that all?” he demanded, trying (and failing) not to be hurt at that. “Just because you don’t trust either me or HPD? Not because you want to work with me.”

Steve wasn’t stupid, but it did take him a few moments to understand what his partner was asking him. He shook his head quickly and strode back over to him and laid a hand on his arm. “I never meant that, Danno,” he told him as firmly as he could. “You are the best partner, best friend I have ever had. And,” he added with a slight smile. “You’re a pretty good lover too.”

One of Danny’s eyebrows made it’s way to his hair at that. “Only ‘pretty good’?” he queried but was starting to relax. He didn’t think he’d have to go with his planned exit strategy after all, despite his own fear of the opposite. “Have you got any better offers?”

Steve relaxed too and gave him one of his bright, relieved smiles. “Not any better, no,” he assured him. “But we’ve only just started and we have a lifetime to get it right.”

He knew he had said the right thing when Danny relaxed completely and smiled at him. “You’re right, Babe,” he agreed. He gave him a steady look. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I can’t have anything like that happen to Grace. Me? I don’t care, but Grace..? She’s great at this; she’ll be better, stronger than me, than I can ever be. I can’t… I won’t… ”

Steve nodded and lifted his hand up to his mouth to kiss his knuckles. “I care,” he assured him. “Your secret is safe with me, Danno,” he said firmly. “I promise.”

 

TBC...


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Calm (boring...?) before...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm getting to the point where I've run out of written stuff so updates might take a bit longer... Will work as quickly as possible on it!

Danny’s burns turned out to be mostly second degree, with only a patch of third degree on his shoulders. He was in hospital for four days, Steve barely leaving his side, especially when Grace was with them. He didn’t treat either of them any differently now that he knew, and Danny was so grateful for that. But he knew he had questions, anyone would, and Steve was more curious than most when it came to his partner. 

So, as soon as they got home, to Steve’s of course, Danny sat down on the sofa in the living room and watched as his partner pottered around for a few minutes. He was obviously working up to something and Danny smiled fondly as he watched him pick random stuff up and move it millimetres to one side before he put it back down again. Eventually he laughed and grinned at him when Steve turned to face him. “Just ask, Steve,” he told the frown on his partner’s face. “Pottering around is so unbecoming of you.” 

Steve walked over to him and sat in front of him on the coffee table. “What, exactly, can you do, Danno?” he asked, and laid a hand on his thigh. “We spoke a bit in the hospital, but…” He paused for a few moments to think. “Does it hurt? Is it dangerous for you to … shift? Apart from being spotted of course.”

Danny sat close to him and thought for a few moments. “It hurt the first time,” he replied. “Then I, and my muscles, got used to it, so it’s virtually painless now.” Steve was watching him and he said nothing, waiting for him to say something else. “It’s painful afterwards though,” he added eventually. “I need to stretch after or I get cramp, so I tend to go for a run afterwards.”

Steve nodded. “But what about that whale?” he asked, suddenly concerned. “You didn’t run then, you were unconscious.”

Danny shook his head. “I was on pretty strong painkillers,” he reminded him. “Completely relaxing,” he added with a smile. “You should try it some time, when you’re hurt, you know,” he added drily. “They might make you a bit more agreeable, less like a bear with a sore head.”

Steve shook his head ruefully. “Bear with a sore head?” he asked. “Bad, Danno, really bad.” He sighed. “What else can you do? Do you have to, I don’t know… touch animals or something to change into them?”

Danny shook his head, still smiling somewhat. “As long as I have a decent knowledge of their anatomy I can change into that animal,” he explained. “I stick to specific creatures though, I know them.” He shrugged. “It makes it easier, I can control it better. Makes sense?”

Steve nodded. “I get it,” he answered and he did. “Someone I worked with once was a shifter,” he explained to him. “But it always seemed to be really painful for her. It took an age too, for her to change.”

Danny nodded. “She may have been the first or second generation in her family to have the mutation,” he explained. “The Williams, through my Dad’s line, have had it for hundreds of years, my Mom’s line even longer.”

Steve nodded and looked down at his hands. “Were you ever going to tell me?” he asked him quietly after a few moments. “I understand your concerns, but … didn’t you trust me?”

Danny sat up properly and leant forward so his knees were touching Steve’s in front of him. “I trust you implicitly, Steve,” he tried to assure him. “You know I do. I trust you with Grace’s life. It was getting to the point where I was going to tell you anyway, what with our relationship. It’s just…. everything I’ve ever been told and taught about it was to keep it secret.” He shrugged. “It’s not easy to break life time habits.”

Steve nodded, reassured. He knew all about that. He was just about to tell him about his own secret when, as per every cliché he had ever read or watched, his phone rang. Saved by the bell. 

 

********************************************************

 

Turned out David Fitzwalter, once he’d been on the receiving end of Kono and Chin’s wrath, loved to talk. At first he was smug, even Chin was about to lose his patented cool when he started on accusing them of destroying the Kathryn for no reason. His whine that sounded almost like: “Um, I’m telling” made Kono snort with laughter and Chin shake his head in disbelief. 

And then Kono pulled herself together and channelled her inner SuperSEAL. Fitzwalter found he really didn’t like her stiletto heel (put on just for this) grinding into his foot with all her weight behind it. After she had spent sometime standing behind Chin, cleaning her nails with a knife Steve would be proud of. 

After that dual assault, and much to Kono’s chagrin – she didn’t need to ‘push’ him into telling her – he wouldn’t shut up. 

His tale was all about how he was a simple courier, used by Captain Lopez to keep his brother out of the loop, and Estaban, who he owned money too. Chin rolled his eyes skyward, his first expression other than calm, when the guy started to sob, dry eyed, about how scared he was of Estaban and his heavies. And now they’d blown up his meth lab the 5-0 crew would be next on his list. 

Chin decided not to tell him Estaban was top on their list too, and it would be easier for jurisdiction issues if he came to Hawai’i himself and they could deal with him here. 

But he did tell him they had too much evidence to believe any of his tosh, which was when he demanded a lawyer. 

Kono laughed and kicked the chair from under him – the man in front of her had orchestrated the kidnapping of one of her friends, and one of her other friends had spent time in hospital with burns because of him. So she stood over him as he lay on the cold floor, and trying to move away from her, but he couldn’t get far, he was still cuffed to the heavy chair. “You get a lawyer when you’ve earned one,” she told him, and stood on his free hand. “Now, are you going to answer our questions, or do I have to start getting physical?”

Chin just shrugged when Fitzwalter turned to him for some help. “You’d better start talking, Brah,” he told him calmly. “She’ll start to get really violent soon.”

So he did, he wasn’t stupid after all. And it took a lot of hours for him to explain everything, provide more evidence, and tell them everything he knew about Estaban.   
They used the FBI agents still hanging around, Kaloa had thawed a bit after the action at the dock, and by the time they turned up at Steve’s house the day after Danny had been discharged they had accumulated a large intelligence package. 

The Detective was dozing on the sofa, propped up on a lot of pillows and covered with a light blanket. Steve was obviously looking after him, there was a large bottle of water and a glass on the table near him, some chips, even a plate of sandwiches, and because Steve was Steve, a selection of cut up raw veggies and fruit too. 

The Commander grinned at them when he opened he front door and let them in, and Chin noted he looked a lot less stressed now than he had when they were in the hospital. And that was because his partner was home, safe, not well, not yet, but not as badly hurt as he could have been. The two SWAT members he had been with were still in hospital, Terry was still in ICU, but he was also making progress too. 

“Howzit, Brah?” Kono asked quietly as she walked in behind her cousin. “You both okay?”

Steve nodded and checked outside, a habit, before he shut the door behind them and turned to face them both. “Fine, thanks, Kono,” he replied and ushered them both into armchairs opposite the sofa, while he perched on the arm of it, near Danny’s blanket-covered feet. 

Which was probably all they were going to get from him about himself, Chin thought ruefully. “What about Danny?” he asked him, and didn’t miss the soft expression on Steve’s face when he turned to face the man in question. 

“Stubborn,” Steve replied fondly, and missed the knowing look the cousins shared with each other. “Whiney when he’s high on painkillers. I swear Gracie gets all of her persuasion skills from her Dad,” he added and turned to face them both again. “What?” he asked at Kono’s muffled laughter and Chin’s oh so innocent expression. 

“Stubborn,” Chin replied drily when Kono couldn’t for laughing. “You’re complaining about DANNY being stubborn.”

“Yeah, why?” the Commander asked, frowning. 

“…because you’re even more stubborn than I am, Babe,” the man in question replied his voice sleepy and a little hoarse.

Danny blinked up at him and smiled when his SuperSEAL faced him with a mild version of Aneurysm face. 

Kono laughed, stood gracefully and walked over so she could press a kiss to Danny’s temple in greeting before the partners could devolve into their usual bickering. “How are you feeling?” she asked him fondly, and glanced over at Steve. “The Bossman looking after you properly?”

Danny nodded and looked over at his lover. Steve was trying to hide it but the Detective could read him extremely well and saw him fighting his possessiveness, but only because it was Kono. “Pretty good, Kono,” he replied and smiled at Steve. “He’s looking after me. He’s the perfect Mother-Hen.”

“Excellent,” she replied, ruffled his already fluffy un-styled hair and, for her own safety, stepped back and sat down in her armchair again. 

Danny watched her go and pulled his knees up to give his struggling partner some room on the sofa. “Sit down, Babe,” he said gently. “Can I put my feet up on you? The Doc said…”

He didn’t need to continue, the Doctor had suggested he keep his feet up and it gave Steve a reason, not that he needed one, to touch him and be close. He nodded and quickly complied, letting Danny rearrange his feet onto his thigh, where he could lay a hand on Danny’s ankle and reassure himself. 

Chin took note, and, being a sensible man, checked the supplies on the table and decided they would need more before they got to business. “Come on,” he said to Kono and stood. “Let’s get some more snacks before we get started.” She nodded and scooted off to the kitchen, and Chin handed Steve his laptop bag he had brought in with him before he followed her. 

“It’s all right, Babe,” Danny murmured when they had both left. “She knows I’m yours, and you’re mine. It’s okay.”

Steve, Chin’s laptop in one hand as he unpacked the bag, faced him with a smile. “She does, doesn’t she?” he replied, and gently squeezed his ankle with his free hand. 

Danny nodded and Steve bent his long body over him so he could kiss him. Danny had to move a bit to meet him but it wasn’t a chore and he didn’t care about pulling the healing burns on his back to do it. They were still kissing, Steve’s arm around Danny’s back to support him, when the other two returned with a tray each. They only pulled back when Chin pulled his laptop from Steve’s grasp with a fond laugh.

“Come on you two,” he said to the completely unrepentant duo. “Work now, nookie later.”

 

********************************************************************

 

Danny was impressed with the work the Cousins and Feds had done with all the information Fitzwalter had given them. They had virtually filled their link charts now; Kono had printed them out for him, knowing he would prefer that. 

“What was he like?” Steve asked them as he helped Danny unroll the large print outs over the Detective’s knees. He had wanted to be in the interrogation room himself, the guy had almost killed his lover after all, but he had decided to stay with Danny anyway. In fact he had been unable to leave his side in the hospital, however much work had called, his hand was virtually welded to Danny’s. And him being with his partner was one of the requirements of his discharge from said hospital, at least for the first few days. 

Kono laughed again as she grabbed a carrot stick. “He sobbed like a baby,” she told him, highly amused. “Tried to blame Lopez for ‘duping’ him.” She made the speech marks with her fingers, making Danny grin, Steve chuckle and Chin roll his eyes. “He then told us everything after I ‘accidentally’ stepped on his foot,” she added, using the speech marks again. “I was wearing needle stilettos at the time. I may have had problems regaining my balance, so could have been on his foot a bit too long.”

Danny groaned, Steve beamed, and Chin just tried to be Zen about the whole thing. 

 

******************************************************************

Danny dozed while the others talked around him about the case but there wasn’t much they could do. The Feds were working on Estaban’s people that might be in Hawaii with the aim of puling them in, mainly to rattle their boss, but that was going to take a couple of days to find them, research any illegalities and get the warrants. Duke was also working on clearing up Fitzwalter’s assets in the islands based on Danny and Chin’s work, so that was also in hand, which was good, for Steve at least. It meant he could do exactly this – sitting with his partner, hands on him, while he dozed on the sofa, talking to the other two members of his team. Taking a couple of days off would be great for all of them he decided as Kono started talking about surf reports for the next few days, everything seemed to be under control, so he relaxed, told them, and wondered as the pair of them grinned at him what Grace was doing for the next couple of days. 

Which was why Danny found himself bundled up on the hammock the next day, watching as his daughter – and he had no idea how Steve had finagled that one – practicing her surfing skills with Kono out in the bay beyond Steve’s house while the Commander himself and Chin Ho spent some time fishing for their dinner a bit further out. 

Malia was coming for dinner (either fish or take out depending on the quality of the catch), and Danny did think he’d heard Chin manage to persuade Max too. Which would be interesting at least, especially if he and the others started talking about those odd animal sightings. Very interesting indeed. 

 

They did start talking about, about the lack of sightings over the last few days, and Kono mentioned the Orca that helped them out in the harbour. Danny, having done this for most, if not all of this life, joined in when he could, but Steve? He was silent thought most of the conversation, only replying when someone actually asked him specifically, and it was being noticed. 

Danny noted Chin’s frown at his partner and nudged Steve none-too-gently with his elbow. “Can you help me to the bathroom, Babe?” he asked him when Steve looked up at him. 

“Sure,” the man in question agreed, jumped up and helped him to his feet from the deck chair he had commandeered after the three of his teammates had brought out onto the lanai when the others had arrived. 

Danny didn’t actually need the support Steve gave him with his arm around his waist, but he did need to do something. “Steve,” he murmured when they were inside the house. “You’re starting to freak out Chin. He’s gonna think it’s you. You need to join in the conversation.”

Steve frowned. “It’s weird,” he replied as quietly. “They’re talking about you, aren’t they?”

Danny shrugged. “Not all of them.” he replied. “I think the cat in Ewa was me, the Orca definitely. But some of the others aren’t, just some people and their imagination I guess. And,” he added with a thoughtful frown. “I’m not the only shifter here.”

Steve shook his head and blessed him with a slight pout. “I don’t like people knowing more about you than me,” he told him darkly. “Even our ohana.”

Danny smiled and lifted a hand to gently cup his lover’s cheek. “I know,” he replied fondly. “And I promise, Babe, I’ll explain all I know, okay?”

Steve covered the hand on his face with his free hand and smiled slightly at him. “Show me too?” he asked him, and gave him a proper grin when Danny nodded too. “Now, did you actually need the bathroom?” he asked him, amused. “Or did you just want to rant at me in private?”

Danny smiled and poked his chest with his other hand. “Both, now help me, you big goof,” he instructed. “Before the others come looking for us.”

 

******************************************************************

 

It took a couple of days for Danny to relate everything he knew about the peculiarities of his DNA (not just the Jersey part of him, thank you McGarrett) and the extent of his … talents. Of course Steve wanted lists of creatures he could shift into, and problems he had because of it, any disadvantages, who else knew, whether or not Grace had the same genetic traits, whether… “Wait, wait, wait,” he said at one point, suddenly remembering something. “There was a mouse in my cell at Halawa,” he said quickly and laid a hand on Danny’s arm. “Every night it was there. I couldn’t catch it, shoo it away or anything. It just stayed with me, on the windowsill, night after night. Was that you?” he asked him, and sat up properly on the sofa to see his partner. “Was that why you were so tired afterwards? Did you stay up all night with me so I could sleep, and then spend all day working to get me out?”

Danny, sitting next to him on the sofa, looked away and fought a flush of embarrassment. “I thought you could do with someone being with you,” he admitted after a few moments. “I wanted to be with you too.” Which was one of the main reasons he had done that. “And I did sleep, some.”

“Yeah, when you collapsed in the office,” Steve retorted darkly. “You slept in hospital if I recall.”

“So did you!” Danny snapped a reply. Then he relaxed and looked up at him. “Do you want to swim?” he asked him which was enough to make Steve sit back and stare at him in surprise. 

“Excuse me?” the SEAL asked him after a moment. “Did I just hear you properly? You’re asking me to swim with you?”

Danny smiled at him and stood, and reached down for him with one hand. “Yes, I am,” he clarified for him. “Do you wanna?”

Steve grinned and nodded, took his hand and let him pull him up to his feet. “Yes indeed,” he agreed easily and they walked out to the lanai together. Steve quickly shivered out of his cargo pants to his swim trunks underneath, and he watched with a leer as Danny stripped completely. 

“Is there anyone on the beach?” his partner asked him as he folded his own clothes. When he didn’t get a reply he looked up and waved a hand in front of Steve’s face as he gaped at him. “Steve? Are there any people on the beach?” 

“Oh!” the Commander replied and looked out of the door to the beach. It wasn’t a particularly nice day and they were safe from any prying eyes, because he really didn’t want anyone else to see his Danno naked and streaking across the sand to the water. “There’s no one there,” he assured him. “You can keep your modesty, Detective Williams,” he told him, fondly amused. And then found that he was out-manoeuvred when Danny grinned at him, pushed him out of the way, and sprinted out of the back door, laughing loudly over the lanai and towards the ocean, across the sand.

Steve watched him go for a moment (who wouldn’t with that view?) but then his competitive streak kicked in and he chased him, slamming the back door closed as he did so. His long legs ate up the distance but Danny wasn’t slow. He was already in the water when Steve got there and, as his partner reached him, he grinned and shifted. 

 

TBC...


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny finds out ...

The SEAL just stared in shock as his partner disappeared in front of him, and a Seal appeared in his stead. It happened so quickly that the sea hadn’t had time to fill the area he had been standing before something else was in his place. 

Steve had seen him morph a limb before, and seen him as the bear and orca, but he had thought the change might take a while. Not so, and he found himself being splashed playfully by a blond-ish Harbour Seal, and Steve sighed, amused. “Of course you’d not go all Hawaiian, would you?” he asked, and laughed when Danny swam around him and flicked him again with his tail. 

Danno-seal was a handsome creature, lighter than the normal grey ones Steve had seen before, spotted with white on his broad back, with long whiskers sprouting from his blunt muzzle. He wasn’t as long as some seals Steve had seen, and he gently laid a hand on Danny’s back as he studied him. “You’re almost as round as you are long,” he told him, amused, and then yelped when Danny slapped him with a sturdy flipper. “But cute, Danno, very cute,” he added quickly, trying to pull something back. 

Danno’s reaction was not what he expected – the seal opened his mouth and took one of Steve’s hands in a gentle grip, backing up slowly into deeper water. Steve frowned for a moment and then grinned as he walked with him further out. “You actually want to swim?” he asked, and then nodded when the tugging continued. “All right, all right,” he agreed, and smiled when Danno let him go and disappeared under the surface, only to resurface a couple of metres away. Steve laughed again and dove cleanly into the waves after him, chasing him with strong kicks and strokes. 

They frolicked in the ocean waves – Danny letting Steve catch him and hold onto one of his flippers as he swam further out. It was great, Steve liked it, he really did, but he would much rather be here with his blond-haired, blue-eyed partner instead of a rather short seal. 

He pulled away from Danny’s flipper and trod water for a few moments before the other guy noticed and turned quickly to face him. He popped up in front of the SEAL, blinked and cocked his head to one side in a querying manner. 

“Can you understand me, Danno?” he asked him and grinned when he got splashed by a flipper. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he retorted and flicked water back at him. “You’re cute and all, as a short seal, but I prefer the actual you.” he told him fondly. And closed his eyes when he got splashed again. “Is that okay?”

Danny was still for a second before he flipped his tail fin and porpoised in front of him, diving into the ocean with barely a splash. Steve tried to follow his progress but lost him when he disappeared under his feet. He turned quickly and was about to do a tuck dive and follow, but he needn’t have worried. Danno himself popped up from the waves, flicked his hair out of his face and gazed at him. “I can’t change this, Steve,” he told him straight away. “And some times I can’t control it either. The bear for example.”

Steve shook his head. “That’s not the issue,” he assured him. “This is part of you, same as me being a SEAL is part of me. Does that make you care about me any less?”

Danny shook his head and smiled at him. “It’s part of your charm – being completely bat-shit insane, crazy, off your trolley, out of your tree, completely psychotic…” he told him with a grin. 

Steve laughed and splashed him again, and checked to see where they were. “Race you to the beach!” he shouted at him, and then dove into the water, strong arms and legs quickly getting into the right rhythm. He had no doubt about his skills and strength, and he grinned when he heard Danny protest, loudly as he left him standing – well, treading. He did wonder whether his partner was going to change into something to beat him, but he didn’t expect a hand to grab his ankle and hold on about half way back to the beach. 

He stopped kicking and turned onto his back to find Danny hanging on to him. He smiled at him, but his partner didn’t smile back. “Danny?” he asked and quickly reached for him, concerned. “What? Are you all right?”

Danny let go of his ankle, only to grasp hold of his hand and not let go. “I don’t like being out so far on my own,” he admitted quickly. “And there’s someone on the beach.”

First things first – Steve quickly turned and scanned the beach for danger. They were close enough for Danny to recognise someone so he knew it wasn’t Chin, Kono or anyone else they knew. He spotted a guy trying to hide in the trees that marked the edge of his property, and then noted the smell of him. It was faint because of the distance, but an unmistakeable smell of sulphur wafted over the waves to his nostrils. The guy was wearing jeans and a white tee shirt that was why both of them had spotted him, and he then signalled to someone who also joined him at the tree line. This one was dressed in darker colours, no smell to give him away, but it was the small submachine gun he held in his hands that made him stand out. “Erm…” Danny murmured worriedly. “Is that a Ruger?”

Steve stared at the two, at first just hoping they were there to talk to them. Until the guy with the gun grinned when he spotted them and turned on them. “Yes!” the SEAL snapped and shoved Danny away. “Swim!”

He took a breath and dove under the water again as the unknown gunman strafed the water with his weapon. Steve kept hold of Danny’s arm as he did so, he knew they weren’t going to get away quickly enough. But maybe Danny could avoid the bullets if he changed into something and escaped. With that in mind the SEAL squeezed his hand and let go, diving as deep as he could and hoped the water resistance around him might slow down the slugs enough not to kill him. He was surprised therefore, when his leading arm was grabbed in a tight grip by a bottlenose dolphin with suspiciously bright blue eyes. 

Danno-dolphin waited only long enough for Steve to get used to the new shape before he let him go and rolled to offer him his dorsal fin. His partner didn’t hesitate, he grabbed the lifeline it was, closed his eyes against the seawater and held on. 

Danny flipped his fluke and was off, swimming as fast as he could under the sea away from the bullet trails that mashed up the water where they had been. He could hear them, feel the disturbances, the clear water wasn’t helping as the two guys now firing could see Steve at least escaping. Danny dodged as best he could, no way was he going to leave his lover, his mate there to get ripped to shreds.

So he swam as quickly as he ever had done before and only took heed of Steve hanging on to him and he need to get as far away as he could.

Steve hung on gamely, no way was he going to let go now, and he tried to make himself as streamlined as possible and avoid Danny’s quickly moving fluke. He tried to stay out of the way as much as he could, not wanting to distract his partner from getting them both away, but he couldn’t help yelping in sudden pain, as one of the shooters got lucky. The burn across his shoulders surprised him into dodging away, but he managed to keep hold of Danny’s fin as his partner rolled again and took him further away with greater speed. 

The blood in the water indicated to Danny that someone had been hit, but he couldn’t feel any injuries on himself. It spurned him into greater speed; he couldn’t have Steve hurt, at all, whatever it cost him. But he was mindful of his SuperSEAL; he maybe able to hold his breath longer than the average person but definitely not as long as Danny could in this form, especially now he’d been hit. So he slowed down when he felt they were out of range and surfaced, taking in some well-needed air as he felt and heard Steve surface beside him and do the same. Then he looked back the way they had come to check.

Danny could see with his superior vision the two guys standing in the shallows in front of Steve’s house. Luckily they were too far away to spot the pair of them floating low in the water. And then something spooked the pair of gunmen and they both started to run, splitting up and heading in different directions. Blue and red lights appeared, someone had called the cops, and Danny relaxed and changed back. 

And then turned to his partner. “Steve?” he said to him and pulled him in with the hand that now held onto his arm. “Where are you hit? Steve?”

The man himself still had his eyes closed and he winced as the salt water hit his back. “Shoulders,” he groaned out, and just let Danny hold him up as he moved round to look. 

It looked like a bullet had scraped along the top of his broad shoulders, deep on his right, lessening up to be just a graze across on his left. It was bleeding sluggishly and Danny looked around to see where they were. In his headlong rush he hadn’t headed straight back out to sea but to the right a bit, which was probably why the shooters hadn’t managed to kill them outright. “It’s not too bad,” he assured his partner. “Let me help you. Can you swim?” he asked him, and moved round again so he could face him. “All right?” he asked. “Steve?”

The SEAL nodded and opened his eyes. “I can,” he agreed, and Danny was just waiting for the: “I’ve swum for far longer with a lot worse injuries before” comment, but Steve just gave him a pained grin instead. “Move, Danno,” he instructed him and started to swim back slowly, a mixture of breast and sidestroke, favouring his right side. “I don’t want to be shark bait today.”

“Ooh ha ha,” was Danny’s succinct reply. 

 

**********************************************************************

 

The swim back took longer and was much calmer than the one out. Danny’s fluke had churned up the water in a maelstrom in his haste to get them both away. He was tired now; shifting took it out of him and to do it twice in such a short period of time? But he was worried about Steve – his partner was still swimming though, if slower than he normally would, and by the time they reached the shore so Danny could put his feet on the sand he was grunting with each stroke. 

The beach was swarming with cops by this time, including Chin and Kono. They were unmissable, both already jogging along the shoreline looking for their other teammates, and as soon as Steve forced himself to stand so he could wade back up to dry land, they noticed. Danny made his way to his partner’s side and squirreled his way under his arm to support him. “Chin! Kono! Over here!” the blond detective yelled and used his free arm to wave at them. 

But he had to stop when he got to waist height in the water, suddenly realising he was bare-ass naked. Literally. 

Chin splashed into the sea and quickly got to Steve’s other side with the aim of supporting the SEAL back onto the beach. “What happened?” Chin asked as they made it back. “Someone called in multiple gunshots. And what’s with you?” he added when Danny didn’t move. 

“Skinny dipping,” Danny replied quietly with a blush. “And two men, automatics,” Danny told him quickly and looked up to see where everyone was. “Steve’s been hit. EMTs here?”

“On their way,” Chin assured him and glanced at his friend’s back. And winced. “Kono! Towels!” he yelled and all of them were gratified when she didn’t question it and waded to them with a couple. She frowned and then grinned when Danny grabbed one and quickly wrapped it around his waist, but he ignored her and slipped his arm around his partner’s waist again. By the time they had managed to get Steve, who had remained silent, to the beach Chin was pressing the other towel to his back and EMTs were waiting for them. 

***************************************************************************

Steve, being Steve, refused to go to a hospital for extra treatment. He knew what was wrong with him, he trusted the techs who had cleaned and patched up his wound, and he really didn’t want to waste time having some doctor undo their work. Instead he sat on the gurney in the back of their rig, blanket around his waist, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees as one of them dressed the wounds on his back. “Did they get into the house?” he asked Danny and Kono who were both standing in front him, leaning against the doors. 

“Nothing seems to have been disturbed or taken,” Chin assured him. 

Steve thought for a few moments and then looked up at Danny. “Just after us then,” he commented. 

Danny nodded. “Yup,” he agreed. “Just us.” He had checked as well as he had nipped back into the house to grab his shorts while Chin had handed Steve off to the waiting EMTs.

Kono jogged over before anyone could say anything else and she flashed a grin at Steve before nudging Danny and standing next to them. She held up an evidence baggie with a mobile phone in it and showed it to the other three. “Found this in the trees,” she told them. “Not one of yours?” she asked. 

Danny shook his head and studied her – she had a couple of leaves in her tangled hair and her jeans had some earth on them that she was trying to brush off with her free hand. “No,” he told her after Steve had shaken his head. “It’s not been there long,” she continued. “Maybe one of the shooters dropped it?”

“We can hope,” Danny agreed. “Any decent descriptions?”

“A couple,” Chin replied. “Can I set up in your kitchen?” he asked the SEAL. “I’m presuming you haven’t seen sense and are going to the hospital?”

Steve shook his head and smirked at him. “Are we done here?” he asked the EMT who gave him a long suffering sigh and a nod. 

“Yes, Commander,” she told him, and handed him a couple of spare dressings. “I’m sure one of your team can help you change those,” she added. “And keep an eye on the usual, if you think it’s infected you need to get to a hospital. Got it?”

He nodded and smiled at her, but didn’t wait any longer. He was up, standing and then out of the rig before she could say anything else, and striding back to his house. Danny paused and smiled at the tech. “Thanks,” he said to her gratefully. “He really does appreciate it.”

She nodded as she started to clear up. “I know,” she reassured him. “Thanks though. Hopefully we won’t see any of you for a while.”

He laughed ruefully and shook his head. “I wish,” he retorted and lifted a hand to her as he backed away, leaving her to chuckle as well, shaking her head. 

Chin had waited for him and grinned at him as he walked back over. “You know,” he commented as they fell into step. “If he sees you flirting with anyone like that he’ll go ballistic.”

Danny nodded, a blush colouring his cheeks. “You’re right,” he agreed and then looked up at him. “Is it that obvious?” he asked.

Chin nodded. “I don’t suppose you go skinny dipping with just anyone.” he retorted, and carried on walking to the house while Danny stumbled over his feet for a moment in shock. 

***************************************************************************

Danny managed to give Chin a detailed description of the two shooters, with his superior vision as a dolphin he had seen them quite clearly. 

“Whoever it was they were well prepared,” Steve mused as he made coffee for them all. “They found out where we lived, that we were going to be here. They must have been watching us.”

Which was not a good thought. All four of them looked at each other in silence for a few moments while they digested that. 

“Have either of you noticed anything a bit… off?” Danny asked Chin and Kono, while he stepped a bit closer to Steve. “I hadn’t,” he admitted. 

Kono shook her head and looked concerned, but Chin frowned in thought, enough for Steve to notice. “Chin?” he asked, and the three waited him out, watching him closely.

“I had thought it was just normal,” the other man said to him after a few moments. “That Pele was getting angry at something.”

Steve and Kono knew what he was talking about, but Danny was confused. “Sorry, what?” he asked, and looked across at his lover. “You know what he means?”

Steve nodded and looked at the other two before he said anything else. “We’re family, ohana,” he told them and gave all three of them his most ‘meaningful’ look. “We shouldn’t keep secrets from each other. Agreed?”

It took a few moments for his lover and the other two to figure out what he meant. All of them were a bit … concerned about it; they had kept their talents secrets for so long it was like cloak of protection around them, especially Danny. “You and Chin seem to know about each other,” Danny commented first, frowning at the pair of them. 

Chin nodded. “I’ve known Steve for a long time,” he explained. “He was about three feet high when I first met him.” He put a hand out at the right height and smiled when Danny gaped at that and then back at the SEAL.

Steve sighed and rolled his eyes. “Yes, Danny, I was a kid once,” he retorted dryly. “I wasn’t born six foot one.”

“I bet you leapt out, all ready to beat the crap out of anyone there, boss,” Kono joked with a grin. 

Rather than deny it Steve nodded sagely. “If they were of the demonic persuasion, yes,” he agreed and waited. 

Danny didn’t disappoint. “Demonic?” he demanded. “What…? Have you all lost your minds? Demons?”

Steve sighed. “I’m a demon hunter, Danny,” he told him. “I hunt them down and send them back to Hell. Chin is Kupuna, and can also manipulate the natural geology of these islands and surrounds. Kono…” He looked over at her and continued when she nodded at him. “Is, well, I guess you’re an Alpha,” he added. 

She nodded. “I can persuade people to do stuff,” she explained with a shrug. 

Danny frowned and looked her up and down. “You don’t need a ‘super power’ to do that, Babe,” he told her completely seriously. 

She laughed and nudged him with enough force that he almost fell over. “I can balance on almost anything. Annnnddd…” she added firmly when she spotted that he was going to scoff again. “I can calculate consequences.” At his continued frown she smiled at him and shrugged again. “It’s best if I show you,” she told him. “Later. So what’s yours? Apart from the best thing out of New Jersey, of course.”

Danny shrugged and blushed again. “Shape shifter,” he told them quickly and looked up to see what their reactions would be. 

Kono grinned. “Cool brah,” she replied. Chin nodded and looked impressed and Danny relaxed a bit.   
Then turned to Steve. “Demon hunter,” he stated, his tone grim. 

Steve knew what that meant and had the grace to look contrite. “Danny…” he began, but stopped when he realised he didn’t have much that he could say to make it better. 

“What was that about trust you gave me in the hospital, Commander?” he asked, his tone acidic. “That you thought I didn’t trust you? That you were so pissed about that? And now you’re telling me you …” He stopped and shook his head and then turned back to Kono. “We’ve got to get that phone to Charlie,” he told her. “Maybe he can get something out of it. Do you want to come with or…?”

“I’ll come,” she replied with a smile. She glanced over at Steve and nodded minutely at his unhappy expression – she would talk to him in the car. 

Steve ended up watching while Danny walked away from him, through the house to the front door. He didn’t even look back, just shut the door behind him as he left. 

TBC...


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve is Danny's, Danny is Steve's, they've just got to figure that one out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You might spot a couple of references to another OTP of mine in this one...

Kono sat in the passenger seat of the Camaro and watched Danny drive in silence for a while before she spoke. “You know, whatever it is he did, he didn’t mean it,” she said to him quietly. 

“Kono,” Danny said to her eventually. “Please don’t do that. You’re far too good to be trying to sort out crap McGarrett and I make.”

She smiled at him. “I know that, Brah,” she said fondly. “But you know I love you, so spill. What’s he done this time?”

Danny was silent for a few moments and she didn’t like that one little bit. “I’ll get it out of you one way or another,” she told him, amused. “And you know Chin’s talking to Steve. So don’t do a Bossman and clam up now.”

He sighed – he knew she was right; he would cave eventually. “He gave me a hard time about not telling him I’m a shifter,” he told her after a few moments. “So much so I was going to transfer back to HPD. Only to find he was hiding…what?” he questioned, and then shook his head and concentrated on his driving. “He demands we have no secrets but then pulls this on me?” he added as he drove into the forensics/coroner’s building compound. “What the hell is a demon hunter anyway?” he asked and turned to face her when he stopped the car. “Do you know? Did you know?”

She shook her head. “I knew he was something,” she admitted – honesty was the best policy after all. “Chin used to talk about him when he was a kid with his Dad. But that was a long time ago, Danny,” she cautioned him before he could yell at her. “And I wasn’t supposed to be listening,” she added quickly. 

He wasn’t in the mood to shout at her, he was tired, his shoulders ached, he’d been shot at, his lover had been shot, and had then … He shook his head. “Let’s get this phone downloaded,” he said to her eventually and mustered a slight smile for her. “Hopefully we can find out who these guys are, deal with them and then,” he shrugged. “Get passed this.”

Kono frowned and laid a hand on his arm – she hated to hear him seemingly depressed and low. “Steve had his reasons, Danny, same as you,” she told him firmly. “We all have. Let him explain before you make any decisions, okay?”

It took a few more moments but he nodded. “I may have to raise my voice at him, just a bit.”

Kono nodded and relaxed a bit. “That’ll be something to watch,” she assured him, and shooed him out of the car. “Work first, play later.”

 

**********************************************************************

Chin watched as Steve stood at the front door and stared after Danny and Kono as they left. If he didn’t know better the Hawaiian thought the SEAL was just about to wring his hands in worry. “He’ll come round, Steve,” he tried to assure him and watched him as Steve turned round to look at him. 

“What if he doesn’t?” the Commander asked him. “I may have been a bit…” he paused to think of the right word.

“Harsh?” Chin supplied for him. And he sighed when he nodded. “You know better than most why he had to keep it secret,” he admonished. 

Steve paced the area and then nodded. “I know,” he agreed but then looked up at him. “But my secrets are not mine to spill, Chin,” he protested. 

Chin shook his head. “Not all of them, brah,” he replied darkly. “But this one was. You’ve been hiding everything behind ‘classified’ and a lot of it you shouldn’t.”

Steve shook his head and stomped off into the kitchen to make coffee. “You sound like Danny!” he shouted out as he banged around. 

Chin grinned to himself and nodded at that and walked into the kitchen to help – well, watch. “And you know Kono’ll agree with Danny and me,” he told him. “You’re out numbered.”

Steve handed him a mug of coffee and studied his own before he spoke again. “Do you think he’ll be back?” he asked him quietly.

Chin sipped his coffee before he replied. “He loves you, Steve,” he assured him. “You’ve just got to hope he loves you more than he’s angry at you.”

“He was quiet, wasn’t he?” the Commander mumbled miserably. They were both aware a quiet Danny was a deadly Danny.

“Oh yeah,” Chin agreed and drank some more coffee. “Silent, brah, silent.”

 

**********************************************************************

 

The phone was surprisingly helpful, and Fong managed to get a lot of information from it. Yes, it was an unregistered pre paid cell, but whoever had it first had loaded it with numbers, hadn’t deleted any texts and had a couple of photos on it too – the four of them and their HQ. 

Charlie was pleased to download it all into their servers for them; mainly because of the bright smile Kono gave him. And while they were flirting Danny scanned over the downloads, taking note of the names linked to phone numbers. Whoever it was who owned the phone was organised at least, and he recognised a couple of the names – the guy who had almost killed Steve, and Estaban himself. 

“Do you know what number was called last?” he asked Charlie, and looked up when he didn’t get answer. Charlie was enamoured with Kono, he was simply staring at her as she laughed at something he’d said, something that he didn’t even think was funny, and he hadn’t heard Danny speak. 

But he did turn to face the other guy when he tapped on him the shoulder. 

Danny smiled at him. “Take her to the theatre,” he told him, amused. “So, what about the phone?”

Charlie flushed some and nodded. “Theatre, o…okay,” he agreed, and got down to business. “Whoever called this number,” he pointed to the last one on the list. “Did it about 30 times, and none of the calls were less than five minutes. The last call was today, about two hours ago,” he told them and Danny checked the time. 

“That was just before we got shot at?” he queried, and Kono nodded and checked her own phone. 

“That was when we got the call, yes,” she agreed.

“And then the same number called the phone about an hour ago. No message left,” Charlie added. 

Danny and Kono looked at each other for a few moments, both calculating what that meant. “Whoever it was was checking to see if it had been done,” Kono said grimly.

Danny nodded and didn’t like where his mind was taking him. “We left Chin with Steve, yeah?” he asked her as he quickly pulled out his own phone. “Can you get all of this downloaded onto our systems?” he asked, and quickly thumbed his phone when she nodded. 

Chin answered on his second ring and he smiled at the caller. “Danny, hi,” he greeted him. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Danny replied. “Steve with you?”

Chin looked around and nodded. “He’s on the lanai, talking to Duke,” he told him. “You want to talk to him?”

“Not yet,” Danno sighed. “The shooter got a call about an hour ago, after the shooting,” he told him quickly. “Get him inside, make sure the pair of you are safe,” he told him firmly. “Charlie’s downloaded everything on the phone, he’ll do the forensics. We’re on our way back, okay?”

Chin could hear the worry in his voice and nodded. “Be safe, Danny,” he told him as firmly as he started to walk towards Steve. “Get back here, as soon as.”

“Will do,” the other detective replied and hung up, only a little relieved. Whatever had happened today and between them he still couldn’t get the image of Steve on the ground with a guy with a gun standing over him out of his head, however hard he tried. “Kono, let’s go,” he said to his partner of the time. “Charlie, thanks. Call or email if you get anything physical from the phone,” he added. He then turned and walked back out of the office like a man on a mission. 

Kono waved at Charlie as she jogged out after him.

 

**********************************************************************

 

Steve was a little concerned when Chin strode over to him and literally pulled him back into the house, but when he explained about the phone and Danny’s concerns he was mollified. “Danny was worried?” he asked him as the Lieutenant pushed him down onto the sofa and, coincidentally, out of the line of fire.

Chin rolled his eyes ruefully and went back over to his laptop and phone. “Stupid question,” he retorted and ignored him for work. As he had been promised the information from the phone was downloaded onto their servers and he got to work setting the computers to checking the phone numbers against anything in their databases. He had to hand it to the intelligence staff at HPD and the FBI – most of the numbers were already in the databases he had access to, fully researched and linked to their various users/owners. The main one stood out – a few calls to and from Estaban himself, including the last call received by the phone, so he knew where Danny was coming from when he was worried about Steve. With a sigh he picked up his own phone and called Agent Johnson.

“Amelia? Chin,” he said when she answered and paused to listen to her questions. “Yeah, they’re okay,” he assured her. “Steve got grazed but he’s okay, Danny’s fine. We found a phone in the bushes by the house; a phone number linked to Estaban called it. Has the FBI gotten a travel trace set up on him, do you know? I can set one up but it’ll be quicker to get the info if you’ve already got one.”

He could hear her type as she asked him to wait and spent the few moments watching his boss and friend. Steve was trying to get comfortable on the sofa, resting his shoulders on a couple of pillows he had gotten from somewhere and he winced. But he managed it and Chin could see and hear his sigh of relief as he relaxed against them. Before either of them could say anything though Amelia answered Chin’s question. 

“We’ve got a travel trace on him, yes,” she told him down his phone. “I’ll contact the Agent in charge and get them to email us the details.”

Chin frowned – they hadn’t been given the details of who ‘owned’ the case in LA and despite the fact he was grateful to the two agents, especially when the Kathryn blew, he needed to talk to someone who wasn’t a middleman or woman. “Who is that?” he asked. “Our firewalls won’t let anything through without a name we’ve added to the address book.”

She seemed to take his lie at face value and told him without pause. “Special Agent Colby Grainger,” she told him as she read it off her records on the laptop in front of her. “He’s the head of the Major Crimes team in LA.”

“Thanks,” he told her and thought about it. It was a name Danny had got from his contact when he had checked their visitors’ legitimacy and he wasn’t surprised. “Is there any hits on movement so far?”

“Not yet,” she replied. “He and his aliases have been in LA for three months at least. Do you want me to check his known associates?” she asked. 

“Please,” he answered. “It’s obvious we’ve caused a few problems for him, he’s not been discreet in trying to kill the Bossman.”

Steve huffed from his sofa. “He’s gonna have to try harder than that,” he called over, making Chin smile. “All they managed to do is churn up the beach and piss off a few locals.”

“Right, Steve,” Chin answered him; his tone dry and amused, and then ignored him for his work, again. 

 

**********************************************************************

 

Danny was concerned, obviously, from the way he drove back to Steve’s house. “You think something will happen now?” Kono asked him as he pulled a McGarrett move and blasted through a set of lights when they were on dark amber. He had to concentrate on making sure they didn’t get crushed on the intersection but replied when they were safely over the other side. “Had this sort of thing before,” he explained to her and glanced across at her. She was belted in but not hanging onto anything, and he was reminded that she was Steve mark 2. “We were protecting a witness with the Marshalls,” he explained quickly. “We stopped an attack but one of the bad guys got a call out. More turned up ten minutes later.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “Did you get the witness out?” 

He nodded. “The Marshalls figured it out,” he explained as he floored it down the highway. “We left before they set fire to the house.”

“Ah,” she replied, and sat back to let him drive.

 

**********************************************************************

 

Steve was pleased to hear the Camaro pulled up outside about 15 minutes after Chin had pulled him inside – he had been worried that Danny would stay out for as long as he could and avoid him. He did have reason to, the SEAL admitted to himself, he should have spilled his own secrets the moment he had recovered from the partner’s revelations, not leave it to Chin or Kono to explain.

But it sounded like he was back so he sat up a bit and watched the front door. It didn’t take long for someone to use a key in the lock and he smiled in relief when Danny walked in, Kono by his side. His partner quickly looked him over before he greeted Chin, who quickly nodded and shoved him over to the sofa and then grabbed Kono and pulled her into the kitchen. So very subtly. “So,” her cousin said to Kono before she could protest. “What did Charlie say about the phone?”

 

Danny had to walk over to Steve to stop himself from falling over from Chin’s none too gentle push and he mentally squared his shoulders as he did so. He knew from the look on Steve’s face that his SEAL wanted to reconcile, but Danny didn’t know if he was ready for that. But then again, he thought to himself, if he didn’t want to reconcile why was his thinking of him as his?

Steve shifted to give him room to sit next to him and then tried to move round so he could face him. “I’m sorry, Danny,” he said first, and meant it. “I did want to tell you, I was going to after you told me in the hospital, but I got that call. Really, I’m sorry.”

Danny sat in the space by Steve’s knees and pushed him back into the pillows behind him. “What about all the other times you could have told me?” he asked him, trying not to start shouting – which was difficult for him. 

Steve had the grace (and sense) to look sheepish, which was not an unusual look on him, to be honest. “It was just… it didn’t seem the right time,” he explained eventually. “I just…”

Danny raised a hand to stop him. “I get it,” he assured him. “Really.” He sighed and blinked. “I’m trying not to shout at you, only because I know you enjoy that, perversely,” he added at Steve’s smile, one of his ‘you know you love me’ ones. “I’m pissed at you, but…” He shrugged. And then his resolve crumbled, just a bit. “You lied to me!” he snapped, just under a shout, and punched his thigh, but Steve knew he was pulling back. “And you were bitchy to me about mine!”

Steve nodded sagely, he knew he was right, but he also knew that if he said anything Danny would be more and more annoyed and probably would walk out. Which was exactly the opposite of what Steve wanted, so he nodded and listened intently to what he was trying to tell him. 

Danny seemed to realise it to, he calmed down some and relaxed. “You can make it up to me when your shoulders are a bit better. Okay?”

Steve grinned in relief and surprised him by reaching forward and grabbing Danny, pulling him close against his chest. The man in question went with an ‘oof’ and found himself manhandled against his partner’s broad chest, strong arms around him and a sloppy kiss smacked to his forehead. “I’m sorry I said those things to you, Danno,” he apologised again. “I will tell you as much as I can about everything you ask. Okay?”

Danny sighed and sorted himself out so he wasn’t going to fall on his ass off the sofa and/or damage his partner in any other way – the embarrassment of a fall he could get over, causing some pain to Steve he wouldn’t. When he was settled: legs up on the sofa, pressed against Steve’s chest, the SEAL’s many arms around him, his legs too, and he was comfortable to be so close and a bit uncomfortable too with the position he was in. But he was going to take advantage of Steve’s offer of candour. “So, tell me, what the hell are demons? How can you tell someone is one, and what do you do with it once you’ve found it?”

 

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Ernesto Arnold Estaban was not a happy demon, not at all. He was losing minions at an alarming rate both here in LA and now in Hawaii. Not only that, David, his new little pet that he had hoped to move into after a while, was in custody, arrested by the very annoying human he had told him to get rid of. 

Ernesto (he liked that name so used it to describe himself now) knew the Commander from old, he had seen him in action, had had to run from him and his team in Iraq after they had come across his nest in the midst of battle in the middle of the night. Ernesto, much to his own shame, had hidden himself and watched as the SEAL took out two of his own minor demons without pause – one he riddled with salt-laced bullets as he sprinted down the stairs, and the other one he decapitated with one of their own weapons when his gun jammed. 

All in all McGarrett and his team had cleared his nest of the nine minor demons and his own partner: a stronger and older demon than those nine, one of his own ilk. They had worked together for centuries, causing havoc, chaos and death to those puny humans whenever they went, and the destruction of Alice – the name she had chosen for herself – still smarted. So, when he had heard the name McGarrett, although not the one who had actually killed Alice, but the leader, the planner, the human who had brought the team to his nest, kept them together, inspired them to fight and defeat an enemy none of them should have been able to withstand, now leading a crime solving team in the place he had wanted to enlarge his own operations to, he was not happy. 

He had ordered David to kill him; he was not stupid enough to face the man himself without a whole load of planning. But no, his team had protected him, had got him out, and had finished off some of his guys in the process. He wondered who the shape shifter was in the little group, he’d checked his own records and found out McGarrett didn’t actually have a pet Grizzly Bear hidden away somewhere. He’d gotten the info from his own mole in the LA FBI officer before she’d been compromised, the new SAC of the office, Eppes he thought his name was, was cleaning house and he was doing a pretty good job of it too. He also had a shifter at his side, and both of them were on his to do list as well.

But McGarrett and his team were more important right now, even more so because they kept managing to thwart him at every turn. Lopez, who had been a loyal wolf, was dead, his easy to hide portable meth lab had been blown to expensive smithereens and the next lot of minions he had sent to finish off the hunter had failed.

He growled at the phone he held in one big hand and put it carefully on the desk in front of him before he crushed it or threw it against his office wall in a fit of anger. Instead he looked up at yet another minion who was standing in front of him and smiled grimly at him. “Pull up a few good people,” he ordered. “And get us to Hawaii. It’s about time I met this upstart hunter and his little troop face to face.” If you want something done, and done right… 

TBC


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, another chapter, don't pass out! Please excuse the delay, I didn't have a clue how to finish it off until something happened at work, which then kicked started my brain again. But then a friend of mine suddenly died, which knocked me down again.
> 
> But I seem to have a second wind on it now, and can see the light at the end of the tunnel... hopefully!

The explanation of demon hunting turned into a team outing, despite Danny's reservations and they ended up on the borders of Steve's property. He was trying to find anything the shooters had left behind, and while Steve and Kono ducked into the trees, Danny and Chin checked the perimeter, looking for something, anything untoward.

The New Jerseyan winced at the noises from the small copse, the ninja and his apprentice crashing through the undergrowth, and rolled his eyes at Chin who laughed quietly when they both heard Kono curse. "I thought SEALs were supposed to be stealthy!" Danny shouted at them, and then laughed as well when Steve shouted back.

"We are! It's Kono!" And then: "Ow! Don't punch me! I've just been shot!"

Kono was laughing though and the two detectives looked at each other, shrugged and ducked into the small stand of trees almost at the same time.

The pair of them found the other members of the team standing in the centre, Steve running arm and glaring at Kono who was grinning at him. "I didn't hit you that hard, Boss," she told him, highly amused. "Grow a pair."

"Tell me why I shouldn't fire your ass, Kalakaua," the SEAL grumbled and turned to Danny and Chin, both also trying not to laugh at him. "This is where the shooters gathered their stuff," he explained and indicated to the marks on the ground that Danny couldn't interpret. "They shot at us from over there," he added and pointed to the edge of the trees where they'd been shot from.

"CSI pulled a large amount of casings," Chin them when he looked at the spot.

"How can you tell?" Danny asked his partner curiously as he looked around. "You said something about spore?"

Steve nodded. "It stinks of demon," he told them and looked around as he did so. "I think they had a vehicle out back here," he added and pointed to a path out of the copse the other side of the trees, opposite to the house. "I can…"

"Go back to the house and let us deal with it," Chin told him firmly. "You've been shot, you need to recover."

"But…" Steve tried to protest but Danny laid a hand on his arm. "Chin's right," he told him. "Just point out where they had their car, the rookie can chase after that," he added. "See it as pay back for punching you."

"Hey!" Kono protested, but half-heartedly. "He deserved it?"

"Whatever," Steve replied and pointed over to the main road a few metres away. "The smell goes that way," he told her and then turned to his partner. The pair of them were right, he knew it, he was aching and if something happened here he wouldn't be very productive in protecting Danno. Who was also looking tired. "Come on, Danno," he relented and latched onto his arm. "I'll go back if you do."

Danny raised his free hand and gave him the pointer finger of no way in hell, the decided against it and held up his whole hand instead. "All right, come on SuperSEAL," he agreed, and the pair of them walked slowly back towards the house, Steve holding onto Danny's arm, for balance as well as reassurance.

The Cousins watched them go. "That was easy," Kono commented.

Chin nodded thoughtfully. "Steve's probably worried about Danny," he shrugged. "And Danny worried about Steve."

"Maybe," Kono replied but didn't really believe it. She didn't pursue it though – Danny's plea that she didn't waste her time sorting out their problems uppermost in her mind. Instead she got to work on the case, leaving her cuz to follow the pair with his eyes, making sure they got to the house unaccosted before he turned back to join her.

 

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Danny mused to himself later the next day that one of the most difficult things he normally had to do was keep his partner in bed beyond five AM in the morning, apart from today – painkillers seemed to make him a bit less… awake at dawn. They had both been tired the previous evening, so much so the Commander didn't complain when his partner dragged him up the stairs, got him into bed and handed him a couple of tables and another capsule and a bottle of water.

Now, some hours later, Danny woke when his pillow moved, and he groaned, blinked and looked up and frowned. Steve, who had fallen asleep on his back, propped up on a number of pillows, was trying to move from under his partner's arms, but he stopped when Danny looked up at him. "Didn't mean to wake you," he murmured with a sheepish look on his face.

Danny moved one arm from around his lover's waist, rubbed his eyes and checked the clock. "It's not even five," he mumbled. "Do you need the bathroom or something?"

"Erm," Steve replied and looked a bit more sheepish, if possible. "I was thinking about a swim actually."

Danny gaped at him for a moment and then shook his head. "Of course you'd think that rest and 'keep your wound clean and dry' only meant yesterday," he grumbled and embraced Steve's waist again. "Go back to sleep, Steve," he told him firmly and laid his head back on his chest where he had fallen asleep. "Do you need more painkillers yet?" he asked as he snuggled back against him. Steve really was comfortable to cuddle with, he thought to himself, with his soft skin, his waist just the perfect size for him to wrap his arms around, his legs long enough to entangle with Danny's. Even as Steve tried to come up with another excuse to go, he found himself embracing the smaller man again and let him settle back against him. "But…"

"No buts, Babe," Danny murmured and pressed a kiss to his lover's nearest pec. "Go back to sleep, we'll sort something out later, okay?"

Steve sighed and tried not to laugh as Danny shifted a bit more against him, his stubble tickled and he was concerned what might come out could be classed as a giggle, and Danny would have a field day on that one. But he was right though, he probably shouldn't getting up and going for a swim right now. He could wait for the time his partner would relent and let him up; he could let him sleep for a while longer at least.

 

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Danny woke up again at a decent time, not stupid o'clock and looked up, blinking again to find Steve still asleep in the same position. He looked a lot younger in his sleep the detective thought to himself as he moved a little to study him, a lot less stressed, none of his troubles weighing him down. Danny wished, not for the first time, that he could be this relaxed and open when he was awake. He just looked so … gorgeous like this. He smiled at him and moved slowly, out of the bed and managed to do so without waking Steve up. He pulled the sheets back up to cover the SEAL's shoulders, pressed a gentle kiss to his mouth and then left him there to sleep on.

By the time he'd showered in the other bathroom, dressed and got downstairs and started on breakfast his phone was ringing and he quickly answered it and stepped out on the lanai. "Morning Chin," he greeted him. "You okay?"

"Fine, brah," his friend replied and he did sound chirpy. "You two? Steve?"

"He's fine," Danny assured him. "He's asleep still. Where are you?"

"HQ," the other man answered. "Fong did some great work on the phone, we've got a finger print on the battery casing on the inside. We're running it now. And," he added with a slight pause for emphasis. "I've managed to hack into the phone provider's systems and have found out where the user has frequented since it was activated."

Danny had mixed feelings about that one. "Don't you need a warrant for that?" he asked him. "But then again, what judge here is going to sign a warrant for a phone used by a demon?" he added darkly.

Chin though laughed quietly. "You'd be surprised," he replied. "Kono got one last night but it's quicker to do it ourselves," he explained. "Do you want us to come over with the results?'

"You going by our favourite bakery?" Danny retorted, making the other man laugh.

"I can do that, brah," the Lieutenant agreed, amused. "You just make the coffee, okay?"

"Okay," Danny agreed easily. "No problem, see you in a few."

 

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Steve smiled when he walked down the stairs of his own house to find his living room overtaken by the rest of his team, computers out and working, coffee, bakery boxes, paper and people everywhere, well, three of them anyway. He hadn't thought he'd sleep again after he had woken earlier and was surprised to find he was alone, and it was beyond 9am. And he could hear voices and smell coffee from downstairs. He pulled on some sweats and an old tee shirt and wondered down to find the rest of his team working and waiting for him.

Danny looked up at him from the sofa and smiled. "Morning, sleepyhead," he greeted him. "How're you feeling? Okay? Shoulders okay?"

Steve nodded and walked over to him, noting the other two members of his team there too. "And yes, I did take the pills you left for me," he said quickly before the man could ask him. "What's going on?" he asked with a nod at all the paperwork and the three laptops set up on the table and working away. "Have we got anything?"

Chin nodded with a smile and waited for him to sit down next to his partner. "We've got a hit on the phone, Fong found a fingerprint," he explained and Danny moved the nearest laptop to show Steve the photo of the male the print belonged to on the screen. "Anyone you know?"

Steve studied the file but shook his head. "He's human, I can tell you that," he told them and reached forward to scroll down to check the rest of the information on the man. It was a police file from LA and the charges on it were long and varied. The guy, probably Hispanic from his olive-toned skin, had several aliases and no one really knew what his birth name, date or place was. He maybe human, he had none of the demonic about him that Steve could see, but it wasn't rare for demons to have humans working closely with them.

"Why would he be working with Estaban?" Kono asked curiously. "Is he…?" she shrugged. "Enthralled maybe?"

Steve looked up and shrugged himself. "He could be," he answered. "I've seen that happen before, but I've also seen people ally themselves with demons because they wanted to."

Danny frowned. "Why would anyone want to do that?" he asked him incredulously. "Would they know what they're working for?"

"They might do," Steve answered with another shrug. "But why do people ally themselves with drug dealers or organised criminals?" he asked. "Money, guns, fast cars, sex, influence? It's all a bit more dangerous with a demon, they can increase a human's lifespan if they want to," he added. "If the person is effective and obedient, the demon can give them some of their own energy I guess you'd call it." He pointed to the man on the screen. "Sanjay here," he said, using the first alias he could see. "May have been working for Estaban for two hundred years. Some people might be willing enough to give themselves over for that alone."

Danny didn't agree it was worth it but Chin, with his Zen qualities, nodded thoughtfully. "Some people might think it was worth it."

Steve nodded. "I've even come across people who were willing to give up everything for their demon," he told them. "Demons steal bodies," he explained. "If they touch you they can force the rightful owner out and take over. That kills the previous occupier," he added quietly and laid a hand on Danny's thigh beside him. "So make sure they don't touch you, any part of you. Okay? They can take over, and that includes all and any talents you have," he warned. "I don't have to tell you what a demon with the ability to manipulate the San Andreas fault could do, do I?" he asked, looking pointedly at Chin.

Who shuddered.

"Or one who can force people to do what they want with a flutter of eyelashes?" he added, looking at Kono.

Who paled.

"Or one who can change into a dragon and burn down a town?" he added to Danny, squeezing his thigh gently.

Who shook his head. "I can't fly," he reminded him, but covered Steve's hand on his thigh with his own. "I understand what you're getting at, Babe," he assured him. "We all do."

"But we can't all tell who's a demon and who isn't," Kono reminded them all. "Will there be any more?"

Steve nodded. "One as old as Estaban will have attracted some hangers on," he answered. "One of the shooters yesterday for example. He was a minion but could do the same sort of damage as the head guy. My Dad told me it's a bit like Highlander for Demons, you know: there can be only one and all that. They only get ahead by moving up the ranks."

"They kill each other?" Danny queried, understanding his reference, however if the frown on Kono's face meant anything, she didn't. "You need to watch older movies," he told her with a smile. "That one's got a great soundtrack too."

Steve wasn't surprised his partner liked that one. "Better than Springsteen any day," he agreed and carried on regardless of his good-natured glare. "They can't kill each other," he clarified. "It's suicide for them, if one demon tries to kill another they both…. die is the wrong word. Both end up back in Hell, and they can't get out again. Instead they use other methods. The one yesterday will work for Estaban, yes," he agreed. "But it won't go out of its way to protect him. If Estaban is destroyed the one closest to him can, and normally does take his place."

"Great," Kono replied in a tone that was arid in its dryness. "We've got to take out the whole mess."

"I don't suppose you know how many are headed here?" Danny asked his partner.

Who shook his head. "Sorry," he admitted. "But not likely to be many for that reason. Estaban's been around for a long time, that means he's not stupid enough to surround himself with demons that all want to be him. If we're lucky it's only him and that one I smelled yesterday."

Danny snorted in derision and Chin nodded. "We are never that lucky," the Zen Master agreed. "Never."

Steve nodded and reached for the lone remaining cocoa puff. He didn't disagree.

 

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It didn't take long for the team to pinpoint the likely location their two shooters had hidden out, what with a photo ID that Kono used for facial recognition, the phone dump Chin used for location analysis, and the reports Danny used to see if anything unusual and 'demonic' had occurred in their target neighbourhoods. "These guys aren't vegetarians, are they?" he asked with a grimace as he spotted a shoplift reported in their most likely area. The electronic report had hit his filter – the word 'blood' – because the thief had gone to a mini mart, ripped open a pack of raw steak and started eating it in the middle of the store. Once he'd finished that one, he'd licked his fingers clean of blood and started on another one before his compatriot, Sanjay most likely from the description, had grabbed him and pulled him out of the store.

"Nope," Steve replied and checked the time of the report. "It looks like it was refuelling after running from here," he told him. "It takes about twenty minutes to get there from here."

"Why go that far if he was that hungry?" Kono asked curiously as she checked the map on her own laptop.

"Safety," Steve replied. "It's likely they've been here a couple of weeks, sticking to an area they know they're not going to get discovered. Anyway, have we got an actual place we can go?"

"What do you mean: we?" Danny asked him with a raised eyebrow. "You got shot yesterday, don't forget," he reminded him.

Steve moved his shoulders, rolling them around to make sure he could. "I heal quickly, Danno," he assured him. "And besides," he added before his partner could shout at him. "I am the only one of us who can identify a demon. I have to go; if you argue I'm just going to go anyway. You might as well save your breath."

Danny glared at him. "Save my breath?" he quoted incredulously. "What the hell, Steve? I know you have an ego but are you seriously that arrogant? You think you can leap in and save the day even when you're injured? Jeeze." He shook his head, stood and walked away to the lanai door, staring out at the waves.

Steve shook his head, sighed and stood, walking over to him as well. "No, Danny," he said to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. "You misunderstand, and I didn't say it properly either. I have to go with you because I can't let you go, any of you, but especially you, on your own. I know," he added quickly when Danny turned to him and opened his mouth to argue. "You, Chin and Kono are very capable of doing this without me, you and Chin have been policing the streets in your respective places, but have you ever come up against a demon before?" he asked.

"I don't know," Danny replied after a few moments of staring at him.

"Now we know," Steve told him and moved his hand from his shoulder to the small of his back, and slipped his arm around his waist. "I don't think I'm going to be able to 'save the day' on my own. I have to go with you," he added, trying to be calm and explain. "I'm sorry, but I do."

Danny watched him for a few moments before he said anything else. "I don't have to like it," he retorted darkly and stepped away from him. "You're injured, which means as your 2IC, I'm in charge. Right?" he demanded of him. "You put that in the procedures, not me."

Steve hung his head and huffed a laugh. "Yes," he admitted.

"He's got you there," Chin agreed, his tone amused from where they'd been watching. "What do you want us to do, Danny?" he asked, and didn't look at Steve.

"Yeah, Bossman, what are your plans?" Kono asked and smiled at Steve when he glared at her.

"Pinpoint a location," he ordered her and nodded a computer in front of her. "Use those Xbox skills to good use. Chin: arrange appropriate back up. We know there are at least 2 with automatic weapons. I don't suppose that'll be it. Pass Kono's location to HPD as soon as she's got it to block off the area. Steve." He turned back to face his partner. "Is there anyone else in Hawaii with your talents?" he asked firmly. "Don't lie to me," he added when he got Steve's 'oh-hell-no' face. "Would they have contacted you if they'd have come across another demon? Think, Steve. If we take this one out, how many are going to come after him?"

Steve sighed. "There are a couple," he admitted. "They've not called me about anyone else."

"Call them," Danny told him firmly. "Find out if we're surrounded. Then," he added and gently poked him in the shoulder. "Have a shower and I'll redress your shoulders. Don't argue," he told him when Steve was going to do exactly that. "I'm not going to have you bleeding near a demon and present it with an all it can eat buffet. If you want to come, do as you're told. Got it?"

Steve looked down his nose at him but Danny didn't budge, and the libidinous part of him told him that take-charge Danny was a huge turn on. "Fine," he agreed and turned on his heel to go back upstairs. "Don't even think about leaving without me!" he shouted as he stomped back up.

"Wouldn't dream of it!" Danny shouted back after him and then turned back to the other two with a smile. "That felt good," he admitted and walked back over to the table.

Chin laughed quietly and Kono grinned at him. "Looked good too," she told him. "You should do it more often."

 

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Danny was true to his word about re-dressing his shoulders, Steve mused some time later. He'd called the other two hunters he knew about that had made the Hawaiian chain their home, but neither had come across any spores or other signs on their respective islands. Sunani had asked him sincerely if he needed any help, she could get a flight over from Maui ASAP, as had Russ, but he had been laughing as he'd said it. "You need me to clear up your mess, bruddah?" the big guy asked him in his thick South African accent. "Again?"

"That was one time!" Steve protested good-naturedly. "How many times have I had to clear up after you?"

"True, man, true," Russ admitted, his grin obvious in his tone. "But no movement on the Big Island. You let me know, seriously," he told him.

"Will do," Steve agreed. They chatted some more and when Steve hung up he was feeling a bit better about the situation. With the pair of them aware he had a couple more options if everything went pear-shaped. So he showered quickly, wasn't surprised to find Danny waiting for him with the first aid kit when he walked out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his hips. "Have we got time for a quickie?" he asked impishly, his hand on the top of the towel.

Danny moved his gaze slowly up and down his lover's long; lean, damp and glistening form and licked his lips. "I wish," he told him and beckoned him over. "But Kono and Chin have pinpointed the best location for our shooters and HPD are mobilizing. If we want to make it we've got to get going."

Steve huffed but walked over to him and sat beside him on the bed. "And you're going to make sure I'm not going to bleed. Right?" he asked.

Danny nodded. "Right," he agreed, and patched him up.

Now, as Steve sat in the Camaro at their location – a house that looked abandoned from the outside, he felt like he was wrapped up like a mummy. Danny had renewed the steri-strips, covered everything in dressing pads taped on, then another layer of tape, just to make sure. Steve had made sure he could move, and he did it again, rolling his shoulders and smiling at the sound of dressings crinkling under his shirt and tach vest.

"Stop that," Danny told him as he checked his watch, the glared at him as he raised his R/T to his mouth. "Duke, you in position?"

"Check," the Sergeant replied. "SWAT too. Are you going to blow this house up too, Papa Bear?" he asked, grin in his tone. "We've got Fire on the way, but only a few."

"Hardy ha, ha ha," Danny retorted dryly, and noted his partner was laughing at him, again. "You want to call it, SuperSEAL?" he asked him. "You've got the highest record of wanton destruction, chaos and mayhem after all."

Steve grinned and opened the car door. "Mayhem is my middle name," he laughed. "Tool up, let's go," he ordered, and expected him to follow.

Danny sighed, shook his own head, and did.

 

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The house, two-storeys, was wooden built, with boarded up windows on the ground floor, broken panes on the first, overgrown garden out front, wire fencing blocking access from the street. Kono, with appropriate back up, was headed out round the back of the house. "There's a gap in the fence here, Boss," she called in on their links.

"There's another one at the side," Chin, with some more back up, called in from the street side of the house. He had the gable end of the property, where the garage was and he peered around the trunk of the huge tree in the corner of the plot to watch for any movement. "Looks like they've broken the front door and use it," he told them. From where he could see the boarding had been pulled from the bottom of the front door, leaving the frame and handle in the middle of it useful and used.

Steve, watching as his partner quickly and expertly used a pair of bolt cutters to cut open a hole in the fence their side, checked around as well. He could smell the demon around the house, it had marked the territory around the house and the plot, and it reeked. It was too strong a smell for the guy not to be home and he held onto his HK70 a bit tighter. Danny finished, handed the croppers to the SWAT member, Terry's partner, who passed it off to his own back up behind and between them they pulled the fence wide enough to get people through. "All right, heads up," Steve said quietly down their communicators. "On my mark, move in." He waited as Danny crept through the fence into the undergrowth, Levi following him, and nodded when his partner, own weapon at the ready, turned round to face him and nodded as well. "Mark," he said to them all, and quickly followed his partner in, quickly joining him.

They made it through the tall grasses without being spotted and Steve indicated with his fingers that Levi and Danny should flank the front door while he checked it out. He quickly pulled the last of the boarding off and peered through the broken glass of the top half of the door. Only to fling himself out of the way to avoid the shotgun blast shot through the door.

Danny had time to glare at him before Levi yanked the door open and the detective ducked in, slipping quickly to one side so he wasn't framed in the sunlight. "5-0!" he yelled as his sight got used to the gloom and Levi slipped in beside him. "Drop your weapons!"

He got another blast from the shotgun as a result, but the shooter was off. The flash from it showed the pair of them where the shooter was, allowing them some sort of upper hand. The room they had entered seemed to have been a living room at some point, there were a couple of ripped and torn sofas there, cushions long gone, a table and chair up against the back wall, and another doorway to the right. The boards on the windows made the place gloomy and grim, but the flash from the gun and movement of the door as Steve slipped in with more back up behind him, allowed the two already in to spot their quarry. Danny yelled again and advanced, quickly ducking behind one of the sofas for cover, giving the people coming in behind him more room to manoeuvre. "You're outnumbered!" he shouted, and fired around or two into the door frame beside his target. "Give it up!"

He got another blast for his efforts, but at least the shooter was aiming at him and no one else.

He could hear through his communicator in his ear and through the house the other breaching, making entrance, but he didn't relax, he couldn't afford to. They didn't know how many people were in the house, how heavily armed they were, what sort of arms, and with one of them a demon too?

"Screw you!" his shooter shouted back and obviously had another weapon with him. He strafed the room with automatic weapon, causing everyone to duck, and Steve used the distraction to move along the wall towards the door. As soon as he got the line of sight he fired back, the others joining in, and the shooter panicked and tried to run. Steve on his tail. Danny cursed and followed, and he ended up chasing his partner through the ground floor of the house, Levi on his heels.

The guy managed to run through the ground floor, through the short corridor, a run down kitchen and out of a back door, but by the time Danny caught up with his SEAL their guy was well and truly blocked in. Kono was standing in front of him, gun aimed straight at his head, Steve behind him with the same stance and Danny and Levi came up behind. Danny slung his gun across his chest and pulled out his handcuffs to do the honours.

Steve watched him out of the corner of his eye as his partner moved towards their prisoner and yanked his arms back behind him to cuff his wrists together. This was the human shooter, the demon was still around, he knew it wouldn't let them take it's human away without a fight. The smell of it was really strong, and he looked around, not liking how exposed they were in the back yard, the ramshackle house over looking them. "Chin," he called on his communicator as Danny quickly rattled off the guy's Miranda's. "Where are you? Any sign of the other one?"

"First floor," Chin replied in his ear. "No sight yet. You sure he's here?"

"Yes," Steve told him as he shifted his line of sight from his partner to the house. "The place reeks of it, far too strong for it to be gone."

"Noted," Chin replied, and Steve could hear him warn the team with him about another armed shooter somewhere on the property.

So the Commander was aware when the demon made his move. He was looking around carefully as Danny handed the other guy off to a couple of Duke's officers and turned to face him. Which was when the demon showed up.

There was a derelict shed over to one side of the yard behind Danny, and Steve was looking at it when suddenly another man popped up behind it. With a semi automatic in his hands. "Mine!" it roared, and started shooting.

"Down!" Steve yelled, and fired back.

Danny swore, shoved his nearest companion out of the way, dropped, rolled through the undergrowth and came up firing. Levi and the others had done the same, but the demon was quite well protected and able to get a bead on all of them. Steve was edging round to try and get a better aim, but it was Kono that had Danny gawping.

He looked up to see her … virtually run up the trunk of a huge over-grown tree that covered most of the back yard, and then along a branch that reached to the shed. The limb was only about an inch wide at the end but she ran along it, leaping over any sub-branches, leaves, nests and whatever without a care in the world, ducking in and out of the other branches above. When she got to the end of the branch she simply leapt over onto the roof of the shed without a shudder, or any sign of unbalance or hesitation.

It seemed her quarry was also as surprised as Danny; he looked up, gaped at her as she stood on the apex of the rickety shed, and attempted to pull his weapon up and shoot her.

It was a toss up between Steve and Kono – which one of them managed to shoot the guy first, Max would have to decide. The Commander had used the demon's distraction to move round so he had a virtually unimpeded shot. Danny flinched and ducked at the duel volleys from both of them. And even managed to stay out of the way of the rain of …. bits as the demon virtually exploded.

It took a moment for everyone to recover from the noise, and the detective quickly looked around to make sure the rest of the team were okay.

Kono was grinning as she leapt lithely down onto the ground in front of Danny, rifle in one hand, and she flicked something out of her hair as she walked over to him. "Brah, you okay?" she asked him.

He nodded and looked around at everyone milling around. "Anyone hurt?" he yelled, and sought out his boss and bedmate.

Steve, also walking over to him, nodded and spoke into his communicator. "Duke, call in," he ordered and listened distractedly as he joined two members of his team. He looked down at the human shooter still on his belly by Danny's feet, and toed him with his boot, just to make the guy, attempting to turn over, realise he wasn't going to get away. "Everyone's okay," he told Danny and looked him up and down. "You?"

Danny nodded and looked him up and down to make sure. "Let's get this ass back to the hole," he suggested. Steve nodded, and between them they hefted their remaining shooter back to his feet.

TBC


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chin!

Their guy wasn’t talking, however much Steve loomed threateningly over him and Danny ranted. He just told them both that he was scared of his boss Estaban a lot more than he was of two human cops in a silly little room somewhere. His boss, he told them, glaring at them both, was already after 5-0, which was why they had been targeted, and Estaban could, and would snuff them out easily. That was all he said, all he was going to say, and he sat in the chair and stared at them both, saying nothing for hours. 

Eventually Chin stepped in, literally – walking into the room and smirked at the guy in the chair as he was obviously doing the pee dance before he turned to the other two and showed them the Pad he’d brought with him. 

Kono had done a lot of work quickly to find out this guy’s identification: the one he had provided was a fake, but, as Steve scrolled down on the screen they both quickly took in the information. Longevity, obviously, was his goal, he’d got records working for Estaban for at least 150 years that their rookie-no-longer had managed to find. “Barnaby Van Dunn,” Danny said with a nod when he read the guy’s given name and looked up at his partner. “Better than Thomas Gibson, Bernie or Sanjay, anyway.”

“Hmmph,” the guy – Van Dunn grumbled. “So? You know my name. You know I've been doing this a hell of a lot longer than you little pukes have been alive. Do you really think I’m gonna give you anything?” he asked derisively. “Do you think the few years you can get me in prison is anything more than a blink of an eye for me? Pah!” he retorted and sneered at them. And then grinned at Danny. “You’ve got a cute kid, Detective,” he told him with a leer. “She’s my reward for keeping quiet. She’ll be worth it in a few years, huh?”

Steve had already grabbed his blond haole’s arm to stop him the moment Van Dunn had mentioned Grace, but Chin was also affected. He stepped forward, putting himself in between his friend and this ass. He studied him for a moment before he said anything. “Is that what you did with your own daughter?” he asked him curiously. “Gave her over to the demon for your long life? We found out about her too,” he added at the sullen look he was getting. “Did he let you watch as his offspring ripped her apart? Did you like that?” he demanded. 

Van Dunn glared at him for a few moments before he replied. “She did that for me,” he growled and looked away. 

“Huh,” Steve commented, still holding on to Danny tightly. “She wasted her life. You’re a slave to a minor, weak golem, neither of you were worth it.”

Van Dunn snarled and tried to stand, using a burst of energy to try and break the handcuffs attaching him to the chair or the bolts securing the chair to the floor. Neither worked and he just made himself more angry. “Fucking shits!” he shouted. “I’m gonna watch while he rips you all apart!”

Chin sighed and shook his head, then checked underneath them to make sure he wasn't going to bring the building down around their ears. He then pulled on the energy trails he could feel around them, avoiding the bright trails of his friends behind him, but used their guy in front of him as well as everything else Pele was willing to give him. 

And then cracked the world under Van Dunn’s feet. 

 

****************************************************************************

 

Steve, who knew of Chin’s talents, was shocked when the ground underneath Van Dunn cracked and warped, the concrete rising, splitting, rupturing, the noise echoing around the room. Danny obviously hadn’t seen this side of their friend and he tensed up in Steve’s grip. “What the hell…?” he murmured and was going to step forward to take a closer look. 

Steve used the grip on his arm to hold him back, and kept him close to him. “Let him work,” he whispered, leaning close to him so he could breathe the words in his ear. 

Chin worked quickly, asking Pele permission before she got really annoyed at him for breaking her work. She was not happy but sent some help his way anyway. He knew when he could see the telltale glow of red in his will-created crack in the Earth’s crust.

Steve pulled Danny as far back against the wall as he could when he saw Chin take a step backwards. He trusted the Elemental completely, Chin had been doing this for a long time, but if he was stepping out of the way then this was going to be….

“What the fuck…?” Van Dunn shouted and tried to scoot out of the way, behind, away, anywhere than the pit that had appeared at his feet. He couldn’t and he glared angrily at the other three in the room. “If you think this is going to make me talk…” he snapped, but then shut up when Kelly and the other two moved back from him. All of them looked worriedly down into the pit, including the guy that had created it, and he found himself staring down there, just beyond his feet. 

At first nothing happened, it was just a never ending well into blackness, the occasional rocky outcrop seen in the light of the room. But that was blue and dim, he shouldn’t be seeing the walls of the well starting to glow red, shouldn’t he?

Then he could see what it was and he struggled mightily against his bonds to escape, but to no avail. “Fuck….” he murmured. 

And stared in horror at the fountain of lava that erupted from the pit. 

Chin’s only show that it was some task to control it was a slight frown on his forehead as he stared at it, making sure that the melted heart of his island didn’t burst through the ceiling, the other floors above and the rest of the building. Instead he made sure the lava stayed in the room, swirling above and around the head of their bad guy. Van Dunn was trying to pull himself together, trying not to show how terrified he was, but he failed. 

Especially when Chin pushed a tendril of lava down from the pool above their heads. It also touched Van Dunn’s hair, he could feel the heat, and he looked up and ended up ducking down in his seat as he stared at it. “I’m not going to tell you!” he snapped at him.

Danny, still standing with Steve, shook his head. “Then you’ll be the most loyal pile of ash Estaban has ever had,” he told him, grinning. “Chin, my man! Do you think you could teach me how to do that?” He was watching, mesmerized, eyes wide, and Steve smiled down at him. 

“So you can scare the crap out of any boys who came too close to Grace,” he breathed in his ear, mindful of who was listening. It was quite rare to see his partner so awestruck, when it wasn’t about Grace, and he took in the view – he was grinning, his eyes shining, and his fingers were flexing on Steve’s wrist where he held him. It would be completely inappropriate to kiss him here, now, so he fought the urge with difficulty. 

Which was good really since Van Dunn decided that that was the time he was going to talk. “Estaban’s coming here,” he snarled at them. “If he’s not here already. You insects blew up his meth lab. He wants to crush you himself.”

Steve bristled and tried to move Danny behind him but the shifter stood his ground and squeezed his wrist tightly – he was not going to the be the archetypal damsel in distress here.

“Does he have a base here?” Chin was asking calmly, ignoring the two behind him for more current issues in front of him. 

Van Dunn glared at him and stayed silent, until Chin aimed some lava around him, down the bad guy’s back and he yelped as he tried to move away from the heat. “Nowhere,” he growled as if it was forced out of his throat. “He stays in hotels, and never the same one twice.” He smiled humourlessly. “The only place we had here was the house you’ve just raided.” His smile grew a little wider and he looked over at McGarrett. “He likes the look of the house at the end of Piikoi Street.”

Steve, who worked with 3 of the most intimidating people he’d ever met, laughed at him. “He can have it for $25million,” he told him, obviously amused. 

Much to Van Dunn’s annoyance. “You’ll find out when he’s here!” he snapped at the Commander. “When your precious team is ripped to pieces in front of you. Or,” he added with a sneer at Danny. “He’ll just make you watch while he fucks your boy hole, and then kicks him out of that body. He has a thing for blonds.”

Danny felt Steve tense up and stepped in front of himself – he didn’t need anyone to protect his dignity. “He wouldn’t be able to handle me,” he retorted. “And I’m no-one’s boy hole.” Then he ignored him for Chin. “He’s got nothing,” he told his friend. “He’s just a low level minion, sent over here as canon fodder probably.”

Which made Van Dunn rattle his wrists in the chair again in a vain attempt to get to the little cop. Chin glanced at him and expanded the crack beneath him to include a leg of the chair, just enough for it to sink sideways and jolt Van Dunn around. Then he ignored him and turned back to the other two. “Lunch?” he suggested.

Steve grinned at him. “Great idea.”

Van Dunn, looking a bit less sure of himself, stared up at them as the trio turned to the door. “You can’t just leave me here!” he protested. “I’ve got rights!”

“Yep, you have,” Steve told him, and then looked at his partner. “I’m never very good at those. What rights has he got again?”

“Cremation?” the blond queried.

Chin just rolled his eyes and pushed the other two out of the room in front of him. “Later, brah,” he told him cheerfully, left and shut the door firmly behind him, closing in Van Dunn’s shouts.

Danny shook his head and glanced through the window of the door. The lava was still roiling above their mark’s head and under his feet. “That is just…” he began and then shook his head when he couldn’t actually find the right words. “Amazing is not the word. Chin, you are The Man,” he grinned and gripped his shoulder. “How long can you keep that up?”

“Hours,” Chin assured him, and if he sounded smug – who the hell cared?

 

****************************************************************************

 

Van Dunn was a singed, gibbering wreck by the time they got back and was more than happy to give them as much information as he had on Estaban’s operations in Hawaii. What he gave them matched with the intel already gathered, including the bit players and any possible locations he might hole up in, so Danny took pity on the guy and got him transported over to the nearest HPD lock up. Then he stood by and watched while Chin carefully repaired their main interrogation room, persuading the lava back under the cracks and into magma again before sealing each one. When he was done it didn’t look as if anything had happened in there and he didn’t look very tired either, just a slight frown on his forehead. 

Danny studied him for a few moments before he spoke. “You’ve been doing stuff like that for a very long time, haven’t you?” he asked him seriously. 

Chin nodded and turned to walk back to their offices with him. “I was being taught by my mother when James Cook was here,” he explained to him. “I have been doing it for a very long time.”

Danny didn’t really have much to say about that one. 

 

****************************************************************************

 

When they got back to the offices Kono, bless her, looked on the verge of using her own skills to do something violent to the boss. She had been watching the video feed from the interrogation room and had diligently added everything to their files, only to have Steve come along and try and mess with it. He was used to things being done by Naval Intelligence standards where things could be hidden and listed under ‘classified’ and ‘top secret’. It didn’t happen like that in policing, everything they were doing had to be admissible in court, all had to be in the right format for disclosure purposes, and they’d all been working hard on keeping it that way. Steve was impatient though, he thought they were on the end game of their case that started with his own kidnapping what felt like months ago and he wanted it done. He had heard Van Dunn’s jeer about Estaban liking blonds and he wanted this over, Estaban gone, destroyed so he could be assured that that one wouldn’t hurt his lover at least.

So he was working on kill strategies rather than arrest ready packages, but wasn’t completely oblivious to Kono’s annoyance. 

When the other two arrived in the bullpen Kono was attempting to shove him off the tech table as he was rearranging a couple of their association charts. Compared to the big SEAL she was built like a twig and she wasn’t having much luck. “It’s all saved properly,” he was telling her as he typed quickly. “I’m only creating another one for my work. There’s no way we’re going to let Estaban get to court on this one, Kono,” he added and finished what he was doing with a flourish. 

“Maybe not,” she retorted sharply. “But we’ve still got to get it done right.”

Steve sighed and looked up directly at Danny, knowing exactly where he was, and what was just about to come out of his mouth. “I have procedures too, Danno,” he told him firmly, cutting him off. “Estaban is not going to make it to court, whatever we do. If we don’t finish the job, the other hunters here will.” He shook his head, straightened and gave Kono a look when she tried to push him away again. “I would never here the end of it,” he complained. “We’d end up with another babysitter. Do you really want a demon like him mixing with the inmates in Halawa? Not that it would keep him for long.”

“Why didn’t you say that, Boss?” Kono asked him exasperatedly. 

Steve opened his mouth again to explain but Danny beat him to it. “’Not going to make it to court’?” he queried darkly. “I can get that about the demon, but what about Van Dunn? He’s human, isn’t he?” He frowned. “I can’t believe I just asked you that,” he added, shaking his head. “I hope you’re not going to tell me that anyone who isn’t human doesn’t have the same rights?”

“No, Danny,” Steve tried to reassure him. “That’s not what I meant. Basically when his demon ‘dies’” he said with a shrug. “His minions will lose anything he gave them. Most of it is long life. Van Dunn is over 200 years old so he won’t last very long. That’s what I meant.”

“Oh,” his partner replied after a few moments of thought. “Okay, I guess.”

Steve nodded. “Okay,” he agreed. 

“Sorry to put a dampener on everything,” Kono added before he could say anything else. “But how do we find Estaban?”

“And how do we kill him?” Chin added grimly.

Steve gave them all one of his wide grins. “I have a plan for that,” he told them all eagerly. 

Danny groaned and covered his eyes with a hand. “I’ll started filling out the ammo requisition forms,” he said darkly. “But no,” he added, pointing a finger at Steve. “I am not getting you a tank.” He then turned and headed for his office. 

Swiftly followed by: “Dannoooo, that’s not fair! I really need a tank! How about a submarine?”

The BAMF cousins watched them both go; Danny trying to keep a whining Steve out of his office in vain, and then faced each other. 

“Same old, same old,” Kono commented, and smiled when her cousin nodded sagely. 

 

****************************************************************************

 

Danny knew it, he knew he shouldn’t have, but he relaxed when he had got a call from Duke telling them that their man was tight in lock up for the night. He smiled, thanked the man, made the decision and took Steve home for the night, telling the other two to go and do their thing too. One of the guys who had tried to kill them was out of the way, the other one in little pieces, and he was pleased to let his partner put some meat on the grill out back of his house, eat merrily, drink beer and then take him to bed. Steve’s bed was very nice, especially when said SuperSEAL fucked him through the mattress, and he was very, very good at that. Danny smiled up at him indulgently when the Commander pounded him through his own orgasm and then, when Danny reached up for him and stuck his tongue in his mouth, came himself and slumped over him, both of them breathing deeply to recover. 

Not only was Steve a big, squishy lump of goo when it came to kids, animals and Danny, he was a snuggler too, and managed to sprout a few extra arms when he buried his face in Danny’s throat and embraced him tightly, arms and legs too. He wasn’t going to let him get away while he slept, not that Danny had any inclination to do that, instead the Detective smiled fondly to himself, wrapped his arm around his shoulder and pressed a kiss to Steve’s temple. “Go to sleep, you giant softie,” he murmured in his ear and kissed him again when Steve mumbled something into his shoulder. “I’ll be here in the morning.”

 

****************************************************************************

 

He was, fast asleep in that big bed when two things happened at once: one of their phones rang on the nightstand next to him, and Steve shook his head and dripped seawater all over him. Danny yelped as he woke up in a hurry, glared at his laughing lover and reached for his phone. “Williams,” he mumbled and stuck his tongue out at Steve, which only made the guy yank the sheet down and drape his wet, cold body on top of him. 

It took a few moments for the words Danny was hearing from the phone to sink into his brain, and he grabbed Steve’s short hair to stop him from nibbling on his neck when he did. “What?” he demanded and stared up at his lover with enough shock for Steve to stop anyway. “They did what?”

“What?” the Commander asked him, and waited for Danny to press his thumb over the mike of the phone.

“It’s Agent Johnson,” he told the SEAL. “Van Dunn escaped.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dun dun dun!!


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Endgame

It took about 15 minutes for them to get very quickly showered, dressed and out into the car, and Danny took the time to call Chin for some more information. He put the phone on speaker and Steve quickly drove them towards the location their partner told them and listened to what he was saying. 

“It looks like they were ambushed,” Chin told them from the scene. The prisoner transfer minibus was on its side in a quiet street, the engine compartment burning from what he thought was a grenade, but Steve would be able to tell him more. There was another damaged vehicle nearby, this one with obvious accident damage, and some bullet holes too. There were also matching bullet holes in the minibus, and a couple of prisoners who weren’t the ones the attackers wanted still there, dazed and luckily in the hands of the surviving guards. It looks like the only person who was injured badly was the driver, which was such a bonus.

Danny frowned at Steve and then back at the phone. “Why was he being transferred?” he asked the Lieutenant. “He was going to be arraigned tomorrow, taken to court then from lock up. Why was he being moved?”

Steve glanced at him and his frown matched. “Where was he being taken?” he asked quickly.

“That’s the odd bit,” Chin replied as he watched Fong get out of the CSI van he had just arrived in. “There seems to be some confusion about that. No one can tell me why they were being moved, just that there was an issue at the lock up and the prisoners had to be moved.” He sighed. “Kono’s on her way to the lock up now.”

Steve nodded thoughtfully and looked around them. “We’ll head to HQ,” he decided. “Unless you need us there?” he added quickly.

Chin knew what he meant, but shook his head. It had been a while since he’d had an issue with any HPD officers, especially since it had got out that he hadn’t stolen the money – he had an idea that Kono and the two guys had had a hand in the leaking of that information. “No, I’m fine here,” he assured them. “Duke’s on scene and Charlie Fong has just arrived, so I’ll deal with them and join you at HQ. Okay?’

“Okay,” Danny agreed. “If you need anything, call. Because I just love being called before wakey wakey time to deal with this sort of crap.”

Chin laughed. “Don’t I know it, brah,” he commented fondly. 

Steve just mouthed ‘wakey wakey time’ with a grin, glanced at the scowl he was getting from his partner and concentrated on driving. 

 

**************************************************************

 

“Sabotage,” Kono told the three men gathered around the tech table in the middle of their bullpen when she walked back in to the offices. “Someone destroyed the back up generators at the lock up and then cut the power.”

Chin nodded and sighed. “Which was why they had to move the prisoners,” he commented unnecessarily. “Is there any indication of who…?” he began but he was cut off.

“Let me finish, Cuz,” Kono protested good naturedly, and showed him and the other two the USB stick she had in her hand. “Whoever it was either didn’t know about the CCTV outside the lock up covering the generators, or didn’t care.” With a flourish she inserted the stick into one of the ports on the table, and typed a couple of commands. 

The cameras seemed to be good quality and they all watched as someone, a male, tall, about F600 tall, broad in the shoulders, dressed in black, sauntered up to the generators located at the back of HPD lock up. He had something in his hand that he was throwing up and down, catching it nonchalantly, and he seemed to grin when he looked around him and spotted he was alone. Bold as brass he then simply placed what he had been catching on the top of the middle generator and pulled something out of it, then looked around him again and walked back out. He didn’t look up at the camera but turned to glance up and around to the area where it was, allowing them to get a great picture of his face. 

Then the camera and its image shook as a bright explosion flashed through the area. Once the camera had settled down they all took in what was left of the three diesel generators – not much. They were burning, the fuel had gone up with the explosion and Steve nodded. “Grenade,” he told them. “Someone must have noticed the explosion. Did anyone notice?” he asked Kono with a frown. “I’ve not seen any reports.”

Danny replied. “Those are at the back of the block,” he explained with a shrug. “Right at the back of the buildings. No one really goes back there, if they can help it.” He looked down at his hands for a moment. “Meka and I hated going to that one, not a place we wanted to leave the car, even though the HPD buildings were in their own compound. The generators are at the back wall, and the neighbourhood behind wouldn’t be exactly upset if the whole thing just falls down.”

Chin nodded, he’d been to that HPD compound a few times himself. Both the cousins noted the mention of Meka, but let Steve take the initiative on that one. He gently laid a hand in the small of Danny’s back and stepped closer to him, just to offer his support to his partner. Meka’s death still hurt Danny, the futility of it, the way it happened, the crap that occurred afterwards, and he still felt guilty about it. Steve didn’t need to say anything; he let his actions speak for him and was gratified when his partner leant closer to him for a few moments before he seemed to pull himself together again. 

Chin carried on as if nothing had really happened. “We’ll enhance the CCTV and put the photos through facial recognition, see if we can get a hit,” he told them and got to it as he was talking. 

Steve nodded. “We flagged Estaban, didn’t we?” he queried with his team. “Everything, including facial at the airport, sea ports and such?”

Kono nodded. “You think he might already be here?” she asked. 

He nodded too, his fingers moving slowly over Danny’s back as he thought about it. “He’s been doing this for centuries, moving around. I had thought he’d use the conventional means to get here, ports and such,” he mused. “But he may not have. We’ve rattled his cage, so he’s moving quickly.”

“By taking back his pet human,” Danny commented darkly. 

The others were silent for a few moments before one of them, Kono, spoke again. “Question is, where would they go now?” she asked, which left the four of them just looking at each other in concerned silence. 

 

**************************************************************

 

They had nothing, and it was in frustration that Steve demanded one of them to call the Feds. Agents Johnson and Kaloa had been dealing with their side of the op, but headed back to 5-0 HQ when Danny called them. Kaloa gave him a snide grin when he sauntered in, only to almost stumble over his feet when Amelia, behind him, shoved him towards the tech table a bit harder than necessary. But it didn’t stop his mouth though. 

“So, you lost your guy and need our help,” he said with a grin at Steve. “So much for….”

Danny didn’t need to look at his partner to know what expression he had on his face. “Finish that sentence and all four of us will shoot you in the head,” the blond told him. “Seriously.”

Kaloa lost some of his bravado when he looked around the other three people and saw the other two men with hands close to holstered weapons, and the woman with her hand on hers, taking the weapon out of her holster as he watched. 

Amelia sighed. “You’re an ass, Kai,” she hissed at him. ‘”It’s not as if we’ve not lost perps before.” With that she turned to Danny. “Ignore him please, his parents dropped him on his head a few times when he was a baby. It’s very sad really.”

“Hmmm,” Steve replied, and glared at the agent for a moment, promising retribution, before he turned to face Amelia. “We know you’ve been working on the case,” he told her firmly. “Any idea why your flags and such didn’t activate when Estaban got here?”

Kaloa looked up at them quickly. “How do you know he’s here?” he demanded, and walked over to them. Danny had to give the man some kudos for his bravado: the way he tried to push up against Steve and look down at their photos on the table may have been brave, incredibly stupid, but brave. It was his job, as Steve’s partner, to wrangle him and pull him into some sort of line every so often, but the idiot Fed had annoyed him so he just stood back and watched with some amusement. 

Kaloa tried to push Steve out of the way to go over their photos but the SEAL planted his feet and looked down his nose at him. So he tried again, only for the Commander to roll his eyes in a very Danny-like way and used one arm to shove him back and out of his personal space. “You want to look at the scene photos?” he asked the idiot as he ended up a couple of metres away from where he had started. “You really want me to shoot you, don’t you?” he added, and used his hand to quickly move the photos onto the side screens. He glared at him for a couple of moments and then spoke again. “So, give us your perfect insight, Agent,” he said darkly. “Where is Van Dunn, who took him and was it Estaban?”

Kaloa stared at the pictures and then glanced at the other people watching him. If he thought he was going to get some sympathy or help from anyone, he was mistaken, even his own partner was glaring at him in anger and some embarrassment. She hadn’t been happy when she had been assigned to him for this, but he was confident of his abilities. He managed to get some indications from the photos and he turned back to the other people. “Well?” Kono asked him, showing him where she stood too. 

Kai sighed. “I don’t know where they are from these,” he admitted. “But we may have some indication of where they may go.”

Danny raised an eyebrow at him and waved an arm expansively over the tech table. “Go ahead,” he invited. “Tell us.”

“Did the CSI techs get any tyre treads? Anything like that?” he asked, deciding to maybe, pull back on the ass while he had the chance to get out of here intact. He wanted off these islands, nice enough as they were, but there was no where to go in the FBI in Hawaii apart from Guam, so LA was the place to be. Maybe if he helped get this job done, then his transfer request might be received a bit more positively there. 

Chin shook his head. “Nothing,” he replied, his tone showing those who knew him that he was not fooled. “No traces of anything, nothing on the traffic cams that we can trace, they’ve just gone.”

Kaloa frowned. “They can’t have just disappeared,” he protested. “Gone up in a puff of smoke?”

Steve stared at him for moment before he turned back to Chin. “Are you tracking anything?” he asked him, and waited for his friend and teammate to close his eyes and seek out any changes, differences in the usual background ‘noise’ of the islands around them.

There was, it was slight, almost as if someone, or something was trying to hide it from him, and he looked up and nodded at the hunter. “It’s going to take a few minutes to track it,” he told him, and simply headed to his office at Steve’s nod. 

The Commander watched him go before breathing out on a sigh and getting back to work. “Okay, Agent Johnson, call your LA office and find out what happened to the flags,” he ordered and was gratified that she nodded and pulled out her phone. “Kono, call the usual CIs, see if they’ve got anything about this morning. Do some facial recognition on that guy at the lock up. If you have to go anywhere, take Kaloa.” She nodded and made off to her office, and the other agent frowned at the Commander when he turned on him. “You, go through these photos and see if you can find anything out of place. You may have been on to something. You can zoom in by doing this…” He showed him with his fingers on the screen on the table. “And you can flick them onto the other screens like this,” he added and showed him how to get the other screens around the room in use. “If Kono needs back up, that’ll be you. Okay?” 

Kaloa nodded, he was quite eager to do something that meant he wasn’t running around after Amelia and the others. “Where are you going to be?” he asked as he moved closer to the table to get on with it.

“Danny and I are headed out to the lock up, them back to this scene,” he told him, and looked over at his partner, gratified that he nodded. “There maybe something around that links them both together.” With that, satisfied everyone had something to do and was okay with it, he grinned at Danny. “Suit up, partner, let’s go.”

Danny groaned and shook his head, muttering to himself as he walked back to his office that it must be a Tuesday, which meant explosives in his near future. 

 

**************************************************************

 

The officer who had discovered the sabotage was a kid, according to Danny, and he was, about 23, just out of rookie school at his first deployment. He was tall and built like a footballer, eager to help but didn’t have much more information than they already had. He was pleased so show them to the generators, walk them through what he had done when he had found the damage, show them how the saboteur had managed to get in the compound, which was already being processed by forensics, but he hadn’t seen the person enter or anything else out of the ordinary. Just a smoking ruin where the generators had been. 

“Can you get anything from it?” Steve asked Danny quietly as they poked around the area. “You know, with your animal senses?”

Danny looked up at him quickly with a frown. “What do you think I am? A walking metal detector? I can’t just change my nose to a dog, babe,” he added. “You’re a hunter, what have you got?”

Steve looked around them and concentrated, but his talents were learned and did not include anything like this. “I can hunt and kill,” he told his partner in the same quiet tone. “I can’t see anything else here. Not like a dog could.”

Danny grumbled to himself again and sighed, looking up at the sky for a moment for some inspiration. “What you’re saying is you want me to turn into a dog and sniff out our demon friend. Yes?” he asked him ruefully. 

Steve nodded, looking surprisingly like a puppy when he did so. And how smitten was Danny when he sighed again and nodded. “Okay, okay,” he told him, and patted his arm. “I’ll be back in a minute.” Steve nodded and watched him as he jogged back towards the car where he’d left it. He didn’t know what his partner was going to do, he hadn’t left the car in an open area, he’d parked secluded under a tree at the side for the shade mainly, and it would be easier to get the machine out of the place in a hurry from there, but it wasn’t completely out of the way. However he trusted Danny, he had been doing such like for a long time without being spotted, so he had to wait for him here and made some excuse to the officer – Ty he called himself, short for Tyrone Hancock (checked earlier) – when he frowned at Danny leaving. 

Soon enough his partner was back, but this time in a guise of something different, a retriever with fur as golden as Danny’s own trotted over and nudged at Steve’s hand, dropping the car keys into it as he did so. He looked down into the bright blue of Danny’s eyes, and he grinned and scratched behind his ears for a moment. “Go ahead,” he told him when the dog wagged its tail at him. “But don’t burn your paws.”

Danny could even roll his eyes as a dog Steve thought to himself as he watched his partner do just that before he moved forward to the mess of the generators, and then back and forth in the area, concentrating on where they had seen the man walk in and out on the CCTV. It took a few minutes of watching the dog move methodically back and forth, nose either on the ground, in the air or around the gate and it’s mechanisms, with Ty watching, open mouthed because Steve didn’t need to say anything. “He’s well trained,” he explained at one point, and grinned at the kid when Danny trotted over to him and nudged his hand again. “And I think that’s my cue. Later,” he said to him and flung him a shaka before he turned around and walked back towards car, motioning the dog out in front of him. He unlocked the car, opened the door and waited for Danny to leap in before he got in himself. “Do you want to go to the other scene first or change back?” he asked, and smiled when he saw that favoured eye roll in the dog again as Danny settled in the passenger seat. From that he took it that he was going to stay as a dog, and the SEAL just fired the ignition and looked around them. With no one around to watch he opened the passenger window, laughed quietly as Danny the dog stuck his head out of the gap, and drove out of the compound the where the bus had been ambushed. 

 

**************************************************************

 

By the time they got to the next crime scene Steve didn’t think he’d laughed so long in a long time. DannyDoggie had had his head out of the window all the time, tongue hanging out, ears flopping in the wind, jowls flapping around his canines, and he looked like …. a dog enjoying the journey. “You are such a puppy!” he laughed when they got there, and ruffled Danny’s ears when he’d stopped the car. 

His partner looked appalled at being called a puppy, but he didn’t shy away from the big hand on his head for a few moments. He also waited with a doggie grin on his face for Steve to get out of the car, and then ignored him when he expected him to jump out of the car from the driver’s side, just looking at him with a raised eyebrow – which was a pretty good skill, Steve thought to himself as he shut his door and stomped around the car. “Is that better, Sir Doggie?” he asked as he opened the passenger door with a flourish. 

DannyDog barked and leapt out, tail wagging, and flounced off towards the crime scene. The CSIs had left by now but the bus was still on its side, the other vehicle still there while accident investigators were taking photos and the recovery people were waiting with their vehicles nearby. They had a few minutes, and Steve just let his dog run around the scene to his nose’s content and went to join the photographer, someone he vaguely knew. 

It didn’t take long, Danny must have got a scent from somewhere and he quickly galloped back over, grabbing Steve’s pants in his jaws as he did so, tugging him back towards the car. He had just a moment to wave bye to the photographer and tap Danny’s muzzle to get him off his pants, before the dog split the seem on them in his hurry to get back to the car. “I’m coming, I’m coming!” he protested, and did as he was told. 

This time Danny leapt in the driver’s side and waited for Steve to follow, and waited impatiently for him to start the car and move away from prying eyes before he curled up on the seat. 

Steve concentrated on driving away rather than watching his partner change back into his usual form, but he winced at some of the sounds and managed to duck the car into a dark-ish alley so they weren’t in full view of people who might wonder when Danny came from and the dog had gone. “Are you okay?” he asked as he turned to face him. “What d’you smell?”

Danny shook himself off and stretched his arms and back, and Steve could imagine he was doing the same for his legs. “Sulphur,” he answered him. “Something horrid. Burning, stone, shit, that sort of stuff.” He shrugged and looked over at his partner and reached back into the back for his clothes. “I don’t know. It smelled stronger than Van Dunn’s partner at that house, but the same sort of thing. Something I don’t want to smell again.”

Steve nodded thoughtfully. “What about the compound?” he asked him as he looked around them. “Did you smell the same thing there?”

Danny shook his head as he pulled on his pants with ease that only came with practice and was going to say something else, but stopped suddenly and sniffed again. “I can even smell it now,” he told him quickly. “Can you?”

Steve paused and sniffed as well. It took a moment, but he stared at his partner and then nodded. “Call Chin,” he told him quickly as he looked around them, looking for somewhere defensible. The alley they were in was not that and he really didn’t want to get stuck in here, just the two of them, with a demon on their tails. So as Danny grabbed his phone and used the speed dial with Chin, he floored the Camaro and controlled it as it shot forward and into the main street. 

Into the path of a dark green SUV. The passenger side window rolled down and revealed the grinning face of Estaban, right there in their way. “Shit,” Steve murmured, and quickly yanked the wheel round to dodge the other vehicle. The gap was tiny, but they managed it and Danny had a great view of the driver and passenger as he had to lean back into the back again to get his gun from where he’d left it. 

“Why’d they always use monster SUVs?’ he demanded of his partner, but before Steve could reply Danny was yelling down his phone to their Lieutenant. “Chin! Estaban is here! Track us and get here!” 

Chin didn’t need to be told twice. “Get back here if you can!” he snapped at him and then turned round to the rest of the group. “Kono! Unload the weapon’s cabinet! We’ve got to go!”

Steve just concentrated on making sure they could get out of there, driving as if their lives depended on it, and they did. He dodged the SUV, letting Danny fight back while he tried to protect them. He aimed the agile car out of the short quiet road and into busier streets, not because he wanted to, but because he had no other choice, they had no other way to go. Which was causing him more worry than being chased by a demon: who or what else had it brought with it?

Danny had opened his window and was firing carefully, probably aiming at the tyres of the vehicle following them, and he glanced back at his partner. “Déjà vu or what?” he snapped before he fired off some more shots. “But they must know my car is better. Where are they herding us?”

Steve shook his head and tried to urge some more speed out of their vehicle. “I don’t know!” he snapped back. “Can’t you change into something big and scary to get rid of them?!”

Danny fired off another couple of shots at their pursuers and then sat back into his seat. “What, like a bear?” he asked him, and just hung on. 

It didn’t take long, only about a minute or two, for Estaban’s group to join him. Steve tried to aim the car through an intersection, attempted to turn right towards HQ, only to find another SUV, this one blue, blasting through at them and blocking them off. “Fuck!” he shouted and had to dodge the vehicle, ending up having to go straight on, into a road he didn’t want to go. Where the next one waited. 

Danny watched them all, waiting for the shots to come, but the people, at least 5 he could see, seemed to be waiting for something else. “Why aren’t they firing at us?” he asked and searched around them for the other shoe to drop. He even ducked his head out of the window quickly to look up much to Steve’s panic, checking on air cover, but nothing.

The SEAL let go of the steering wheel with one hand to pull him back in. “Don’t do that!” 

Danny had the temerity to grin at him before he looked around again. “Where are they taking us?” he asked as he tried to picture where they were. 

“I don’t know,” Steve replied through clenched teeth. “And I don’t like it.”

“Well, change it then,” his partner retorted and watched him. “Piss them off and head somewhere else, then we can get to the stuff in the trunk. It’s about time we got to play with your toys.”

Normally it would be Steve who was ready to be gung ho, not Danny, and the SEAL glanced over at him just to make sure he was still with him and hadn’t been changed for one of his old team. It was his partner though, and he looked back at the road. He knew where they were and where he could divert to, somewhere at least a bit closer to the other part of their team. But he had to do a quick manoeuvre to get there though. “Strap in,” he told him, waited for Danny to do so, and then got to work. Danny just held on to the oh-shit handle and let him. 

The car seemed to judder as Steve stood on the brakes, flinging them both forward against their seat belts, and he waited for their pursuers to do the same before he simply threw the car into reverse, straight at the main SUV with Estaban in it. The driver of that vehicle seemed to be a bit more chicken than the others; he dodged the big vehicle to one side, letting Steve grin at Danny as he did so. “When I yell, pull the handbrake!” he ordered. He timed it as they got level with one of the other SUVs, shouting “Now!” when he was ready.

Danny, grinning maniacally, yanked the parking brake (in between them) up as hard as he could, then pushed it back down again. The car twisted around on it’s axis, almost ALMOST flipping over, but not quite, and Steve simply floored the accelerator again and punched past the third SUV. And then laughed quickly when Danny flipped their pursuers off with a finger when they sped past.

“Are you feeling all right, Danno?” he asked him as he drove the vehicle back out on the road he had wanted to go onto. “You’d normally be cursing me by now.”

Danny shrugged and glanced back to see what the other drivers were doing. “This whole case had pissed me off,” he told him and laid a hand on his lover’s shoulder for support as he twisted his body to look behind. “I want it over. Where are we gonna do this? I’ll call Chin to meet us.” 

Steve made a quick decision, he didn’t want this fight where a lot of people could get hurt – he didn’t want anyone hurt – so he made a snap decision. “There’s a warehouse area off Nimitz highway,” he told him quickly. “Not far. We’ll go there, not much working there on a Saturday.”

Danny let him go, sat back and pulled out his phone again, all the time shaking his head ruefully. “Why must it always happen at warehouses?” he asked as he quickly dialled Chin again. “There must be a glut of warehouses in this place. A glut.”

Steve smiled grimly. “We put them up, just to annoy mouthy Jersey transplants,” he retorted, and headed the way he had stipulated. 

 

**************************************************************

 

It didn’t take long, Chin was on speaker phone while Kono drove, she was almost as insane as Steve, and he had called in back up as well. Soon enough they were there, Steve having slowed down a little so their pursuers didn’t lose them – Danny had mentioned that it might be a good idea if they made sure the bad guys got to the ambush point. “You know, just in case we want to take them out rather than have to go looking for them again. Not everyone drives as fast as you; they’ll need to keep up. They are using inferior vehicles, after all. Although,” he added with a glance at his partner. “At least they had the sense and taste not to use pick ups. Especially the ones that are the size of land yachts, I mean, what are they overcompensating for?”

It wasn’t a new argument, Danny was making noise for the sake of it, probably to lessen the tension, and Steve was grateful for it. The thought of losing the other three vehicles had crossed his mind, but he knew Danny would be very angry with that, he was right: it was high time they got this over with. But Steve had seen what demons could do to people, and the very last person he wanted that to happen to was Danny, sitting beside him. “Danny,” he told him quickly as he drove the car into the dock area they had arranged. “You can’t let Estaban touch you. He …” He shook his head. “I…”

Danny laid a hand on his partner’s arm as he slowed the car to a stop, out of the way behind a metal shipping container. “You said,” he reminded him. “And I have no wish to get that close to him. But,” he added as he looked around them. “If anything happens, call Bobbi, okay? She knows what to do.”

He looked serious and Steve nodded. “Okay, but nothing will happen.”

Danny nodded, gave him a long steady look for a moment before he unlatched his seat belt. “Come on,” he told him. “It’s time to unleash your inner SEAL. You did put the bazooka in the trunk didn’t you?”

Steve nodded and the grin was one of relief – that he was finally able to blow stuff up, and play with his new toy. 

Chin was obviously using the tracker, Kono met them at the same spot as they were checking each other’s vests and rummaging in the trunk for weapons, and the other two quickly joined them. “We followed three SUVs in,” the youngest of them told them as she strapped on her own weapons and checked the gun in her hand. “But I think we were followed by more.” And then gave Danny, dressed in jeans, his Kevlar vest and sneakers, a raised eyebrow. She was already suited up, vest on; Danny could see she had at least three more guns on her with a lot of clips of ammo. Steve had already shoved grenades, more guns and ammo Danny had ever seen, and other weapons in his cargo pants, around his person, had his thigh holsters on and shoved his usual Sig in the chest holder as he looked Chin up and down. Shotgun, more guns, and he nodded approvingly. “Don’t…”

“Let them touch us, yes, we know.” Kono finished and turned quickly when she heard something. “Here they come.” 

She wasn’t wrong; Danny heard them too, the three heavy vehicles driving slowly into the sandy area in front of where they were. “How’re we going to do this?” he asked quickly, hoping they had hidden both vehicles enough to give them just a few moments. 

“We’re finishing it.” Steve stated. “Kono, stay high, there’s plenty of containers, buildings and such for you to stay above them and shoot downward. Chin, take the left, Danny, take the right. Use everything you have, all of us. We need to contain them here. HPD?” he added quickly, looking at the other two. 

“On their way,” Chin added. “I asked Duke for every officer with any sort of skill. The Feds were following too.”

Steve nodded, knowing that meant their sort of skills as well as the usual. “Be careful, let’s go,” he ordered. He stepped closer to Danny and grabbed a favourite weapon as Danny waited for him before he quietly shut the trunk, close enough to bump shoulders before moving away to take his own position. 

Danny wanted some more, but he was a professional, and the shit was about to hit the fan so he took what he could, flipped the safety off his gun and went right. 

 

**************************************************************

 

The three SUVs were all parked close together the other side of the small space made so by the surrounding containers and other buildings, and they made a great target. Steve crouched down against the container they had parked behind, sorted out his toy and placed it on his shoulder as their pursuers got out of the cars. He aimed for the one he’d seen Estaban in, he knew he was unlikely to take him out with one blast, but he could hope. And he certainly made a splash when he fired. 

The rocket propelled grenade didn’t divert from its course and Steve found himself smiling grimly as the middle SUV blew in a bright flash of light, heat, noise and flames. The guys left in it, two he thought, that hadn’t managed to get out, didn’t, and the explosion made the others pile out of their vehicles and into the open, allowing them to be marked.

None of them were Estaban, he must be somewhere else, and Steve dropped the grenade launcher and pulled out one of his many guns. Estaban’s people were already fully armed and ready, one of them started firing at the Five-0, the others joining in, and the fight was on. 

Trying to keep an eye on his partner Steve used the container for cover, aimed carefully and fired, hit one, was gratified to see the guy was human and reacted as a man would when shot in the chest. Even as he re-aimed he saw Danny take another, and Kono, out of the corner of his eye, use the hood of her Kruze for a lift and leapt onto the top of it, from there onto the top of container without and an issue. He could hear the might retort of Chin’s shotgun, and then Kono’s weapon. 

Estaban’s guys had nowhere to go apart from back under the dubious cover of their vehicles, one of them already burning. 

Estaban was around somewhere; he must know the others were being picked off, even now Steve watched as Kono took out another one. He hadn’t seen Van Dunn either, and from what he knew about demons and their pets, he was going to be around somewhere. So where the hell where they? 

Danny moved from his metal cover to the next, trying to outflank the shooters, Chin matching him the other side, and they were making good progress too. Kono on top of the containers was moving from the one he was by, to one that Chin was using, and she had eyes everywhere. But they were all looking forward, and Steve quickly turned back to scan where they had been. 

Which was when he saw them – Van Dunn and Estaban – moving in behind them. The Demon was walking out in the open, cocky bastard, and Steve stood and turned to face him. “Creeping up on us, huh?” he demanded loudly, letting the others know they had company behind them. 

Danny heard, even over the gunfire, and he turned back to see Van Dunn pulling up a gun to aim at his lover. And no, that was not going to happen. So he emptied the rest of his clip into the asshole’s face. 

Van Dunn looked for surprised for a moment, but then he just looked dead, not much left of his head, and Estaban stared at his favourite pet as he simply collapsed on the ground like a felled tree. He was not getting up again, whatever the demon attempted to do, and he glared up at Danny. 

“You’ll pay for that, pretty thing,” the man said to him. Even though he was too far away for Danny to hear, it was as if the guy was whispering in his ear. Danny shuddered and jerked away, but the voice didn’t dissipate. “I’m going to rip apart your little friends,” the voice hissed, and he only knew it was Estaban because his mouth was moving. “Then take your pretty little body. Then I’m going to kill your kid, your ex wife, anyone you know. What’s your kid going to feel like? When her Dad is kill her? Will she..?” he added. 

But stopped when Danny pulled out another gun and started firing at him. He was a good shot, Estaban jerked as the bullets hit his upper chest, but he didn’t fall, simply shook them off when Danny had to reload. “Nice try, Pretty,” the demon told him with a laugh. “I’m not that easy to kill.”

Steve noted something was up the moment his partner closed his eyes, pressed his hands to his ears and shook his head. He knew what that meant, he’d seen it before, and he clicked on his radio. “Chin! Kono! Status!” he yelled and listened while he made his way over to Danny as quickly as he could. His lover was still out on the open, and even though the replies he got were “Clear,” and “SWAT and FBI on scene” from the other two he was not prepared to lose him to a stray bullet. 

He grabbed the smaller man around the waist by an arm and pulled him with him out of the way and out of the demon’s line of sight, which cut him off. Then: “Chin, Kono, Estaban’s behind. He’s targeting Danny.”

With that he concentrated on his partner, grabbed his arm and shook him. “Danny!” he hissed at him. “Look at me! Whatever he said won’t happen! Danny!”

His partner opened his eyes and looked up at him, fearful but angry too. “You make sure!” he snapped back. “If that fucker gets me, you make sure he can’t use me to kill Grace. Or you. Got it?”

His tone brooked no argument and Steve found himself nodding grimly. “As long as you do the same for me.”

Danny nodded, huffed out a breath to steady himself, and then nodded again. “Okay,” he agreed and laid his free hand on Steve’s this, the most affection he would allow himself in a situation such as this. “Let’s make sure it doesn’t get to that,” he told him firmly and put his gun down on Steve’s other thigh. The Commander watched as he quickly stripped off his vest, making sure he was hidden from view as he did so. “All of our skills, right?” the detective demanded. 

“Yeah,” Steve replied and had a few moments to appreciate the view as Danny stripped again. But this wasn’t the time or the place and he shoved Danny’s badge, wallet, phone in pockets of his own cargo pants when handed them. 

“I’ll keep him occupied,” his partner told him as he squeezed his thigh and then backed off. “Do your usual and kill the bastard, in your inimitable SEAL style.”

Steve didn’t smile, he was worried, but he nodded. “Something small, quick but with nasty teeth, okay?” he told him, and then watched as Danny smirked at him and then changed. Steve sat back on his haunches as a blue-green dinky little dinosaur … DINOSAUR … appeared in Danny’s place in front of him. It stood on its hind legs, front legs in front of it, each hand with three fingers, huge elongated claw on each middle finger. And teeth in its longish jaw, lots of teeth. It looked like a little Velociraptor he’d seen when he, Danny and Grace had watched Jurassic Park a couple of weeks ago. “You need feathers,” he commented. Grace had been put out that the dinosaur: “It’s just WRONG, Danno, Uncle Steve,” she’d complained. “It’s too big and it should have feathers.”

DinoDanny hissed at him, then provided said feathers on his arms, and got moving. 

One thing Steve had been astounded about was just how … comfortable his haole was in his many forms – the dolphin for an example. This one was no exception – the little creature chirruped at him and leapt past him, over any obstacle and out in the open, back into the fight. 

Steve scrambled up, Chin and Kono with him, and the three of them spread out and joined in. 

Estaban, closer now, out in the open, laughed at first as the dinosaur ran towards him. “Pretty birdie,” he crooned, and then yelped in surprise as the little ‘birdie’ swiped one very sharp hand at his knee. 

“Huh,” Kono said as she watched. “I didn’t think his blood would be red.”

Steve grinned. “Lets see how much we can get out of him,” he told her. She matched his grin, and then moved off, going up again, leaping on to the top of another container. This time she used Chin – a hand on his shoulder, a lithe, light foot on his hip – as a springboard. It worked, they’d been backing each other up for a long time and all her cousin did was roll his eyes. 

Then got to work. 

Danny dodged in and back out of the way, swiping his long claws on what he could reach, ripping cloth, ripping skin. Estaban tried to grab him – his arms, tail, head, anything, but failed and howled in frustration each time. One grab was far too close – his hand almost ALMOST grabbed an arm, but Danny pulled back in time and only left a couple of feathers in the demon’s hand, not part of him, not enough to use. Estaban snarled in rage, moved towards the little creature but stopped when Steve and Kono started firing again. 

The bullets flew true, they may not kill the demon but they certainly distracted him enough from sending anything their, or Danny’s way. His body jerked with the hits, but when Chin started shooting him with his shotgun the guy ended up losing ground, staggering backwards with the force of it. Any normal person would be dead so many times over, but Estaban didn’t seem to care that he was riddled with holes, his stolen body regenerating quickly. It couldn’t keep doing it forever, but they might run out of ammo before they could overwhelm him. “Chin!” Steve shouted as he advanced, shooting out one of Estaban’s eyes as he did so. “We need extra!”

Chin nodded, concentrating and followed up Steve’s shot with one of his own, almost blasting off half of Estaban’s head. 

Making the demon howl as it’s real form tried to force it’s way out of the dying body. It staggered, put out an arm and almost fell, only Danny, who had nipped forward again to hamstring him, stopping his fall. 

This time the little dino couldn’t get out of the way, Estaban’s hand grabbed hold of a leg and didn’t let go. This time the howl was triumphant, and Steve panicked. “Kono!” he shouted, knowing, trusting her to do something, and ran towards the melee.

Danny was pulling away jabbing at the hand holding his leg with claws, jaws, anything he had in his desperation to get away. Even as he did it though, Steve got to him to see the area around Estaban’s hand turning white as he started to force himself into Danny’s body. 

No way in hell was that happening. 

Steve grabbed his partner, pleased that he’d taken a small form, stomped on the arm Estaban held him with and pulled them both away as the demon was forced to let go. Estaban shouted again and tried to go after them, but Chin and Kono responded. 

“Move, Boss!” Kono shouted. She hefted a metal pole she’d found on top of one of the containers and used it as a pole vault. She stabbed it at Estaban, using it to fling herself across the gap to another container. Her weight and anger forced the pole through the centre of the demon’s torso, just as Chin got to work. 

Steve ended up backing up as far as he could away, Danny held tight in his arms and he stared at the scene in front of him. Danny’s leg was still white, hanging limply down, and he seemed to settle against his big SEAL’s chest.

Estaban was screeching – it was his voice – shouting, spitting curses as he tried, ineffectively to pull out the pole that pinned him to the ground. He didn’t seem to notice the asphalt, sand and dust beneath him was moving, forming into something else, something hotter and much more liquid. 

Chin concentrated and formed the lava he was pulling up into a thin stream of it. He aimed it along and up the pole, using it to coat the metal. Estaban’s howls turned into pain, rather than anger, and while he was distracted Steve moved again. He put Danny down against the foot of another container, one that had enclosed the space, and pulled out a couple of grenades from more pockets. He ran back over to the fray, pulling the pins as he did so. If the demon had no vessel, no body to reform, he was be gone, out, back to hell or wherever he came from and Steve was going to make sure that happened. 

The pole Kono had grabbed was hollow, wide enough, probably scaffolding at one time or another, and was perfect for what he had planned. Counting, he dropped the grenades, one after the other, into the hole at the top of the pole and grinned at the demon as he backed off. “See ya,” he told him and sprinted back towards Danny. 

Ernesto shut up, as did Kono and Chin, all three listening to the noises of the grenades bouncing against the sides and sliding down the inside of the pole towards the bottom, and Estaban’s torso. He panicked, tried to pull the pole out, but failed. 

Steve got to his partner just in time, skidding the last couple of metres on the dirt and falling to his knees, crouching over his still form as the grenades blew. They blew up together, through the pole and the lava, and the demon. 

Estaban’s scream of anger was cut off by the huge noise of the explosions, as he was blown into tiny little bits of blood, guts and gore, spread out all over the area.   
In the shocked silence of it’s demise all Steve could hear was Kono. “Ew, Boss!” she shouted at him. “Demon in my hair!”


	17. Chapter 17

Steve was still for a moment as the shockwave from the explosions echoed around the area. He had been this close to explosions before and had always been surprised that they had been mostly heat and noise, rather than any real force – the demon had absorbed most of the blast power from the grenades. They had done it though, their combined actions had destroyed the demon, there was nothing left of him apart from a crater and some small, smoking remains. He quickly looked up to make sure the rest of his team were okay, only to find them both running from their respective positions towards him. 

And Danny. 

Chin got to them first and he knelt beside them and looked up at Steve, his expression stricken. “Shouldn’t he have changed back?” he asked, worried. “I don’t even know where to take him.” 

Steve shook his head and did the only thing he could – placed his hand over Danny’s muzzle to check. It took a few moments of rising panic before he could feel some air moving over his hand and he relaxed a bit. “He’s breathing at least,” he told the others. 

Kono, also arrived, gently lifted one of Danny’s legs and stared at it. It was white rather than the dun green colour of the rest of him, and the odd colouration reached up half the limb. “It looks like freezer burn,” she said grimly. “What..?”

Steve shook his head and bit his lip. “The demon touched him,” he told them and laid a hand on the creature’s shoulder. He shook it, hard and leant close to him. “Danny, can you hear me? Danny?”

No response, and the three of them looked at each other worriedly. “We can’t take him to a vet,” Chin commented. “How can we explain this?”

Then Steve suddenly remembered something and pulled out his phone, pleased they had added each other’s contacts. “But we can call his private doctor,” he told them and thumbed on his contacts. 

Bobbi answered on the third ring. “Afternoon, who is this?” she asked. 

“Bob, it’s Steve McGarrett, can you talk?” he asked quickly. 

She must have heard something in his tone. “Of course,” she agreed. “Where’s Danny? Is he alright?”

“He’s unconscious, we got in a fight, I think he’s hurt.” Steve told her quickly. “He seems to be stuck in form. Is there anywhere we can take him?”

“Shit,” she said eloquently. “What form? Is he bleeding?”

“Dinosaur,” Steve explained and checked as much of his partner over as he could. “I can’t see any bleeding.”

“Okay,” she said to him, all business. “Take him to your place, but be careful with him. If he comes too in the same form he may forget himself and act like the … dinosaur?” Her tone queried the form, but she shook herself and carried on anyway. “Don’t get bitten, he’ll never forgive himself. I’ll meet you there in twenty minutes, okay?” 

“Okay,” he agreed, pleased at her speed and forthrightness. “We’ll be there.” With that they both hung up, Bob to rush around her house, gathering the stuff she needed and grumbling to herself, and Steve to muster his teammates. 

“We need to get him back to my house,” he told the attentive cousins. “Kono, can you get one of the vehicles as close to hear as possible?” he asked and she nodded and scampered off. “Chin, damage control. We need to keep as many people away from here as possible. I don’t know how many people Danny’s told.”

The other detective nodded and stood, looking around him for some officers. They needed to cordon off this area and get a clean up crew in as well. So he headed off to find Duke, knowing full well the Sergeant would be involved in this as well, however much he liked to complain about their tactics. 

Steve watched them go and looked down at his partner again, worried that he still hadn’t made a move. “Danny,” he said again in the vague area of his ear. “You’re scaring me. How am I going to explain a…a dinosaur to Denning, huh? And Grace?” He paused for a moment in thought. “She might think it cool to drag you around on a leash as a pet for a while, but only for a while. And me….” he added grimly after another pause. “I need you D. You’re the only person who hasn’t left me. Please don’t l… leave me now.”

No response, and he sighed, leant forward and hovered his forehead over Danny’s feathery back. He had heard Bob’s warning but didn’t believe it – he was in no doubt at all that whatever form he took Danno would never hurt him. Except if he left him now. He knew what the burn was on his leg and he was worried. The demon had laid a hand on his partner and tried to force himself into his body and Danny out of it, which would have killed the Jersey detective. One you were out there was nowhere to go – the demon’s previous form would dissolve and what had been the person’s … soul for want of a better word would simply fade away. He would have lost Danny and would have had to destroy his body lest the demon run wild with it as he had done for centuries. But – the only good sign was Danny’s continued silence and unmoving form perversely. Estaban would have recovered from the transition almost immediately; he wouldn’t be unconscious like this, which meant it was highly likely Steve was still talking to his Danny. 

Kono returned with Chin’s SUV a few moments later and Steve looked up, where she had parked it at the head of the alley, cutting off the view from the officers Chin was corralling even now. Once he had got the cordon sorted and pointed out the clean up for Fong Chin then headed back to the rest of his team. He was dismayed to still see the dinosaur on the ground but at least he could see the creature was breathing. 

“We need to get him in the car,” Steve told him, and Chin nodded. 

Between them they managed to dino-handle Danny into the back of the SUV, all three of them carefully arranging limbs and feathers so they could shut the door behind him without catching anything. With a rueful smile Kono handed Steve the keys and took his spare set for the Camaro as a swap. “We’ll clean up,” she told him. “Let us know any change, okay?”

Steve nodded gratefully and didn’t hand around. He got into the car, shut himself in and was off, sirens and lights blasting, towards his own house in moments.   
Chin sighed and turned back to Kono. “I guess we need to find all of that demon,” he grumbled. 

Kono pulled a gobbet of something out of her hair and handed it over. “Present,” she told him and smiled at him as he took it with a grimace. 

 

*********************************************************************************

Danny was still unconscious when Steve got back to his house, he didn’t make a noise when he was carried from the car into the living room. He only made a noise like a squeak when Steve laid him on the sofa, and if the SEAL weren’t so panicked he would have chuckled at that. As it was he ended up a spending the few minutes it took for Bobbi to get there pacing between his unresponsive dinosaur to the front of the house to look out of the windows.

Eventually, although only about 5 minutes later, a black Volvo was driven slowly into the driveway. Steve frowned as the driver parked it, but then relaxed in relief when Bob got out of it. He quickly opened the front door for her as she hurried over, her bag in hand, and she smiled at him in greeting. 

“Steve, you okay?” she asked, running her medical eye over him. 

“Fine,” he said quickly. “It’s Danny.”

She nodded. “Where is he?’ she asked, and followed him into the house. She ended up looking down at a mini dinosaur and had to smile. “Cute,” she commented as she put her bag down. “How long has he been out? And what happened?”

Steve quickly explained and watched as she sat down beside his partner and got to work. The only problem seemed to be the odd mark on Danny’s leg, which didn’t explain why he wasn’t changing back. Which was what the Commander asked. 

“Normally if he’s injured,” Bob explained as she looked closely at the burn. “He told me he got shot once in form and it took about twelve hours for him to change back. He can force it, but he needs to be awake for that to happen.”

Steve nodded. “How do we get him to wake up?” he asked, looming over them both. 

Bob grinned at him. “Annoy the living hell out of him until he tells us to stop.”

The pair of them spent the next two hours poking the dinosaur without a stick, talking to him – well, Steve snapping at him, giving him grief about his procedures, driving skills, his reports. Both of them flicked at spots, played with feathers, tapped his beak, and Bob cleaned under her nails with one of his cleaned, long claws.   
Danny finally made moves to wake up when Steve threatened to throw him into the sea. The little dino started to move, a couple of twitches at first, and then a chirrup, and finally a full body shudder. Bobbi sighed in relief, stood and pulled, or tried to pull Steve away. “Give him some room,” she cautioned him when he glared at her. “It’s like anaesthetic; he went in cranky, he’ll come out cranky.”

Steve declined to mention that his partner was cranky most of the time; he thought Bob probably knew that. Instead he stood back and watched as his partner slowly emerged from the feathered creature on the sofa. It wasn’t the usual seamless transition from one form to another, it took a while longer and Steve winced at some of the bone-crunching noises. There was nothing he could do for him but wait, but he did move past Bob’s arm when Danny emerged fully and groaned. 

The Commander knelt down beside him and wanted to touch him, to make his partner know he was there, but he didn’t really know what sort of reaction he would get – he certainly didn’t want to hurt him. He studied Danny’s proper form as his lover struggled to open his eyes, and worried on his lip when he saw the white patch on his arm. “Danny?” he called and couldn’t help it. He laid a hand in Danny’s soft, unruly hair and gently rubbed his scalp, watching him closely. “Danny? Are you back with us?”

Danny forced his eyes open and blinked up at him. “…Steve…?” he croaked, and tried to sit up. “What..? Are you okay? The others? What about Estaban?” 

Steve helped him sit up and then grabbed an Afghan from the back of the sofa for him and draped it over his lap. “Everyone’s okay,” he assured him. “Estaban’s gone. Are you okay? What do you remember?”

Danny looked at him for a moment, checking he was really okay before he answered. “We were fighting Estaban,” he said with a frown. Which morphed into horror when he remembered. “Oh my Gods,” he said in a panic and say up properly, checking both of his arms. “He touched me! The demon touched me! Jesus, Steve, what are you doing here? I could…” He rubbed his arm and spotted the weird white patch. Stared at it, then back up at Steve. “No, no, no, nononono …” he murmured and tried to scramble away. “Get away! I might hurt you! He was going to use me to kill you. You and Grace!” He ended up in a miserable huddle in the corner of the sofa, hugging his knees. 

Steve wasn’t going to leave him like that, instead he scrambled after him, kneeling next to him so he could reach him. Danny tried to pull away when he felt his lover’s strong arms surround him and pull him back. 

“Danny, hush, it’s all right,” Steve tried to soothe him, holding him as tight as he could. “He didn’t get you, you wouldn’t be like this if he did. It’s okay, we’re safe, it’s over.”

It took a few moments but Danny looked up from his shoulder eventually. “You sure?” he queried quietly. “I’m not gonna turn all demon on you in the middle of the night?”

Steve shook his head, not trying to hide his smile. “You’re not going to turn all demon on me. Except if I wake you up before seven on a Sunday,” he added fondly.   
“Anyone would react badly to that,” Bob rejoined with a relieved smile. “Let me check you over, Danny,” she added when he looked up at her. 

He stared at her for a moment but eventually nodded before he turned to Steve. “Stay, please,” he said to him, not a question, and Steve nodded – he wasn’t going to let him go. 

 

***************************************************************************************

It didn’t take long – once Steve had moved out of the way – Bob checked her friend over thoroughly but the only wound she could find was the odd mark on his arm. It was cold to the touch, and Danny didn’t feel anything from if apart from cold. 

“We’ll keep an eye on it,” she told him, and used a marker to put a few dots on the edges to mark the extent of it. “Don’t wash that off, okay?” she told him with a fond smile. 

When he nodded she stood up, grabbed her bag and looked over at Steve. “Keep him warm, keep an eye on him and call me if that mark gets bigger or doesn’t start to fade in a few days. Okay?”

He nodded and walked her out to the door. “Thanks,” he said to her gratefully. “Really. He didn’t change back and I didn’t know what to do…” He looked away from her, back to the sofa where they had left D under his blanket. 

Bob laid a hand on his arm and smiled slightly at him. He looked uncertain, worried which was completely the opposite from how Danny had described him to her. “He came back to you,” she assured him. “He’ll be tired for a day or two, maybe a bit more cranky (they both winced at that one), a bit clingy. He should be fine in a couple of days.”

He nodded again, and she patted his arm and left him to it, chucking her bag in the trunk of her car. He watched her while she left, then shut the door and went back to Danny. 

***************************************************************************************

Kono took his call after she had managed to head back to HQ for a well-deserved shower, and her smile of relief told Chin, at the tech table with their 2 Feds, enough that he could stop worrying himself. “All of Estaban’s people are either dead or in custody, Boss,” she told him as she walked back over to the other three. “It’s over.”

Steve, despite everything his thirst for revenge was demanding, nodded. “Pass the rest over to the feds,” he told her and looked down at his armful. He and Danny were still on the sofa, Danny curled up against him, sleeping off the effects of the morning. He'd woken briefly, let Bob check him over and Steve calm him, then, once he was reassured, buried himself in Steve’s shoulder and fell asleep again. 

Steve was surprised at how much he enjoyed cuddling with Danny. He hadn’t been relied on so much before; even Mare didn’t settle like this on him, trust him this much to provide comfort and safety. So he held his phone in one hand and Danny close against him with the other, and watched him sleep. 

“Okay, Boss, will do.” Kono agreed. “Is he really all right?” she asked after a few moments. 

“He will be,” Steve replied. “He’s asleep. His doctor has checked him over, tells me he’ll be fine in a couple of days.”

“That’s good,” Kono agreed, relief evident in her voice. “Chin and I’ll be over when we’re done here. Okay?”

“Okay,” Steve agreed. “Later.” With that he hung up and settled down again, his partner tucked up under his chin. 

Kono wasn’t upset at the abrupt end of the conversation, Danny had been the Bossman’s priority for a long time, longer than he probably realised. And they still had work to do to clear up this mess before either she or Chin could get away. 

 

***************************************************************************************

 

It took a few days for Danny to get back to his normal self. He was tired, snappish, but after his first bitchy comment to his partner after something or another he’d shut up, only replying when he had to. Steve hated it, despite joking about it he never liked Danny when he was silent, it seemed so unnatural. 

Danny wasn’t sleeping well either, he seemed to be having nightmares, waking up with a start or forcing himself to sat awake as long as he could, making himself feel worse. After about forty hours of this Steve had had enough. 

The detective was slouched at the kitchen table, hunched over, elbows on the table, staring at a cooling mug of coffee in front of him. He was exhausted, it showed, and the Commander stood in front of him, arms folded across his chest. “Danny, what is wrong with you?” he demanded and stepped forward when his partner just huffed at him. “You need to sleep. You heard what Bob said.”

When his partner said nothing, again, Steve walked over to him and sat down in the chair next to him. “Danny, please just talk to me.” He leant closer and laid a hand on Danny’s knee. “What’s going on in that brain of yours?”

Danny blinked down at his knee and Steve’s hand before he finally looked up at his partner. “Scared,” he murmured finally, the first word he'd said in hours. And, looking in his eyes, Steve knew how much that had cost him. 

“What of?” Steve asked him with a frown. “I’ll protect you, I promise. Just tell me what from.”

“Him,” Danny replied and looked away. “I keep hearing him, I can still feel him on my arm.” He looked down at the fading white mark on his arm and then up at his lover again. “Are you sure he’s dead?” he asked, and if Steve wasn’t so worried he’d class his partner’s tone as plaintive. “That he’s not going to…. to….?”

“Snatch you?” the SEAL finished when Danny faded, not knowing the right words. “He’s dead,” he assured him firmly. “Gone back to hell or whatever you want to call it. He can’t come back, he has no physical form. He can’t come back, Danny.” He shifted closer and pulled his partner close against him to reassure them both, and pressed a kiss to his temple. “It’s not possible for him to sit in you, it’s not. Is that why you don’t want to sleep?”

When Danny nodded Steve hugged him tighter as he thought about it. His partner had been panicked when he had first come round that he was going to be taken over by that demon, mainly because of what Estaban had said to him when he was goading him. But he was worried about nothing, there had never been any examples of demons ever hiding ‘in’ a victim before, ever, throughout all of Steve’s knowledge and the lore he’d been taught by family and others with his particular skill set. “Danny, Babe,” he said firmly and waited for him to look up at him. “I will protect you,” he told him firmly. “You need to sleep. I will watch over you while you sleep, okay?” he told him. 

It took a few moments for that to sink in to the exhausted brain of Danny’s but he nodded eventually. “Promise?”

Steve nodded. “I promise.” He waited for his partner to compute that and smiled at him when he nodded. 

“’Kay,” Danny murmured and then simply laid his head on his hands on the table in front of him. 

Steve chuckled and shook his head. “In bed, Danno,” he told him. He stood, wrapped his arms around his shorter partner and pulled him up again. “Do you need me to carry you to bed?” he asked him as he hefted the other man to his feet. “Really?”

Danny huffed in reply but made his feet work enough to walk, with Steve taking most of his weight and supporting him. They made it up the stairs and Danny was surprisingly compliant when he let Steve put him to bed. Literally. But the Detective did give him a baleful one-eyed stare until he sat down on his side of the bed with him. “I promised,” Steve assured him and picked up a book from the nightstand next to him. “Go to sleep Danno.”

Danny, seemingly satisfied, turned over towards his protector, pushed his forehead against his partner’s thigh for reassurance, and was asleep in moments.

 

***************************************************************************************

 

He slept for hours, Steve always by his side. He woke briefly a couple of times when Steve had to go to the bathroom or shifted to get another book, but only enough to make sure the SEAL was still with him before he settled back down again. 

When he woke again, properly, it was well into tomorrow and he blinked a couple of times before he looked around. He felt so much better than he did, a hell of a lot more reassured, and he stretched with a sigh. 

Which alerted his partner to his wakeful state. Steve woke from his doze wrapped around his partner in their bed when the main moved. He smiled, pressed a kiss to the nape of his lover’s neck and hugged him a bit closer. “Morning Danno,” he greeted him, his voice a bit gravelly with sleep and disuse. 

“Morning, Babe,” Danny replied, his voice even more gravelly. “You okay?”

Typical Danny. “I’m fine,” Steve replied fondly. “What about you? You slept better?”

Danny rubbed his eyes and nodded. “Much,” he agreed and blinked a few times in an effort to wake up. “And I’ll thank you properly after I’ve used the bathroom. Hang on.”

Steve found himself laughing as he had to let him go when his lover, partner, wriggled out of his arms and scrambled out of the bed to the ensuite bathroom, shutting the door behind him. 

After using the toilet and cleaning his teeth Danny was back and he stood in front of the bed, suddenly feeling a bit … uncertain. “I could, er … have a shower now if you want to swim. Or something.”

Steve knew exactly what he wanted and he shook his head and held up the sheet invitingly. “We can shower later,” he told him. “And I can swim any time. What’s got you so nervous?” he asked as Danno slid back in bed with him. “Are you okay? Really?”

Danny stretched out beside him and faced him. “I’ve been an asshole for the last couple of days,” he admitted quietly. “And after everything you did for me too. I wouldn’t be surprised if you wanted me out of here.” 

Steve shook his head and moved closer so he could touch him – laying a hand on his firm abs. “Danno,” he replied fondly. “If I was going to walk the moment you were an asshole I’d have run back to sea a long time ago.”

He laughed again when Danny frowned at him and retaliated by flicking his exposed ear. “Carry on if you don’t want to get laid any time soon, sailor-boy,” he retorted, but he started to smile at his partner’s continuing mirth. “Alright, I get it,” he added after a few moments and shuffled closer. “But still, thanks.”

Steve smiled one of those wide, goofy grins. “My instructors always said my fortitude was amazing.” Then he yelped as Danno sprung on him, shoving him onto his back and laying his hands on one of Steve’s closely guarded secrets: his ticklish spots. 

But Steve was a stubborn SOB and he wasn’t going to end up giggling like Grace without a fight. He quickly sat up and flipped them over, using his greater mass to pin Danny down beneath him. “You’re gonna try that one again, D-Dog?” he asked from his vantage point – sprawled over his partner. 

Danny laughed. “D-Dog?” he queried, amused. “Really?” As Steve nodded Danny bent his knees, used his hips and twisted, and laughed again when Steve found himself in a heap in the side of the bed. The SEAL looked up to see his partner virtually curled up beside him in laughter. He looked happy, stress-free and Steve found himself just watching him laugh for a few moments. When Danny noticed he was being watched he looked up and frowned a little. “I didn’t hurt you, did I?” he asked him and sat up quickly. “Steve?”

The Commander smiled and leaned in for a kiss. “No,” he assured him. “You just look….” Never good with words he let his actions take over. This wasn’t the playful lay he had planned; he wanted Danny to know exactly how he felt about him. So he moved forward, cupped Danny’s face in one hand and kissed him deeply, pressing into his mouth to taste him, explore and using their momentum to move his lover back down onto the bed. “I love you,” he murmured as he covered Danny’s willing body with his own again. He chased the other man’s jugular down his throat with his mouth while Danny opened his legs to let him settle on top of his properly and used his own hands to explore that delectable tattooed body. 

“Then show me,” the detective encouraged him. So he did.

 

***************************************************************************************

2 weeks later….

“Steve!” Danny shouted and ducked out of his cover to pop off a couple of shots at their bad guys-du-jour. “Wolves!”

“Shit,” Steve replied quietly down their radio link from where he was also stuck behind cover. “Chin? Kono? You get that?” he queried as he ducked a close volley.   
“Copy,” Chin replied, and Steve could hear the heavy retort of his shotgun nearby. 

“Copy,” Kono added, and even as Steve ducked out to try and hit the guy pinning him down, he was shown again the skill of their rookie. 

The shot she took from the top of another building was perfect and the guy was shoved backwards out of the way by the force of the shot. He wasn’t getting up again. “Thanks Kono,” he replied and checked out the area again before he made his move. 

Danny’s own cover was rapidly being shot away by two more shooters, and even as the Commander got close enough to see him one of them got in a lucky shot. Danny jerked back and clutched at his left shoulder, but he was still with it enough to swear. “Son of a…. That’s it,” he grumbled over the radio and looked over at Steve. “They’re Wolves, Steven,” he told him in a conversational tone. “You know what that means.”

Steve sighed and nodded, eventually. “I know,” he replied. “I don’t like it, but I know. What are you thinking? Wolf as well?”

Danny shook his head and gave him a feral grin. “Nah,” he told him as he started stripping off his clothes. “Dogs drool.”

The change was quick, as usual, the form taken in front of Steve was large, feline, with two huge front incisors that curved downwards and looked wickedly sharp. The golden fur shimmered in the sunlight and Steve found himself grinning at his partner. “Ready?” the SEAL asked as the large cat stretched, flexed claws, muscles, sinews. Then looked at him and nodded. “Chin, Kono, don’t shoot the kitty!” he ordered down the radio. “Everyone else, feel free.”

“Copy,” from Chin with his Zen-like laconic smile.

“Hell, yes,” from Kono, eager, as bad as Steve. She started shooting at the bad guys swarming around their ubiquitous warehouse. 

Even from a few feet apart the SEAL could feel the eye roll he was getting from Smilodon-Danny near by, but as soon as Kono started shooting he took that as his cue and moved forward, leaping over the wooden crate Danny had hidden behind when the shooting had first started. 

As soon he appeared the Wolves started shouting in surprise, and then the howling at him as they changed in response to his appearance. Danny took them, leaping over, around and under obstacles to get to them. 

Steve moved out as well, using the distraction the big sabre tooth cat’s sudden appearance caused to take on the humans around them. He was not alone, Chin and Kono backing him up. The Commander, as always, kept an eye on his partner as he streaked away, and winced when the cat took out the throat of one of the wolves with his claws and teeth (and no, Steve was trying ever so hard not to think about how long it was going to take for Danny to get the fur out of his teeth), and then took out one of the humans in the same sort of manner with his K-bar when the man tried to leap out on him from cover. 

The four of them advanced, as one and in tandem, dropping their foes as they did so, one step at a time. 

End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not particularly happy with the lame ending, sorry!
> 
> I've gone off McDanno at the moment, big time, which is one reason this took so long too. Season 4 starts tonight in the UK so I'll have to see where that gets me. 
> 
> Thanks very much for sticking with this though!


End file.
